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.^EUNIVERJ/A       AicUBANCElfi 


RATIONAL    LIVING 


SOME     PRACTICAL     INFERENCES 
FROM    MODERN    PSYCHOLOGY 


BY 

HENRY   CHURCHILL   KING 

PKESIDENT    OF    OBERLIN    COLLEGE;     AUTHOR    OF  "  RECONSTRUCTION    IN   THEOLOGY' 

"theology  ANP   THE   SOCIAL   CONSCIOUSNESS,"  "PERSONAL   AND 

IDEAL  ELEMENTS   IN   EDUCATION" 


2J?In  fork 
THE   MACMILLAN   COMPANY 

LONDON:  MACMILLAN  &  CO.,  LTD. 

I9I2 
41X  rigntt  reitrvet 


Copyright,  1905, 
By  the  macmillan  company. 


Set  up  and  electrotyped.     Published  September,  1905.     Reprinted 
December,  1905;  March,  1906;  April,  June,  October,  November,  1906; 
February,  August,  1907  ;  January,  1908  ;   February,  June,  1908; 
February,  1912. 


PREFACE 

It  is  with  considerable  hesitancy  that  one 
undertakes  to  point  out  the  practical  sugges- 
tions of  modern  psychological  investigations. 
Scientific  workers  in  this  field  have  a  natural 
prejudice  against  attempts  to  make  their 
science  quickly  useful;  and  this  feeling  is  so 
strong  on  the  part  of  many,  that  one  almost 
seems  to  proclaim  himself  to  such  as  a  char- 
latan at  once,  if  he  attempts  to  draw  prac- 
tical inferences  from  this  study,  and  to  make 
these  inferences  generally  available.  But  is 
it  not  possible  that  we  might  well  heed  just 
here  Hilty's  illuminating  word?  "Truth, 
wherever  it  may  be  sought,  is,  as  a  rule,  so 
simple  that  it  often  does  not  look  learned 
enough." 

It  is  true  that  the  full  significance  of  the 
inferences  will  hardly  be  felt  apart  from  a 
reasonable  presentation  of  their  psychological 
grounds;  and  it  is  also  true  that  many 
attempts  so  practically  to  use  psychological 
results   have   been   fanciful   and   extravagant, 

(v) 


PREFACE 


and  have  tended  to  lay  extreme  emphasis 
upon  the  least  assured  results  of  recent  inves- 
tigations. Still,  it  were  extraordinary  if  such 
extended  and  thorough  study  of  human 
nature  as  the  recent  years  have  shown  had 
no  valuable  suggestions  for  living,  that  all 
men  would  do  well  to  heed ;  and  James  and 
Sully  and  Baldwin  and  Royce — to  mention 
no  others — have  certainly  left  us  no  room  for 
doubt  upon  that  point.  And  it  ought  not 
to  be  impossible  to  present  the  psychological 
facts,  even  in  somewhat  popular  form,  with 
sufficient  accuracy  and  fullness  to  give  weight 
and  point  to  the  practical  suggestions  in- 
volved, provided  these  practical  inferences 
are  drawn  with  sanity  and  moderation,  and 
from  assured  results.  And  it  is  only  with 
such  inferences  that  this  book  intends  to 
deal.  It  makes  no  appeal  to  the  mere  love 
of  novelty  or  mystery.  It  intends  to  build 
soberly  upon  the  whole  broad  range  of  psy- 
chological investigation. 

If  I  may  be  allowed  frankly  to  express  in 
these  introductory  words  my  personal  feeling 
and  conviction,  I  should  say  that  I  have  not 
been  able  to  doubt  the  seriousness  and  value 
of  the  counsels  lying  back  of  this  modern 
psychological  study.    Even  where   the  coun- 


PREFACE  vil 

sel  is  not  new,  it  comes  with  fresh  force, 
when  its  psychological  justification  can  be 
clearly  shown.  Manifold  as,  no  doubt,  the 
shortcomings  of  this  book  are,  it  is  still  no 
hasty  compilation,  but  embodies  those  sug- 
gestions which,  through  a  number  of  years, 
have  appealed  both  to  myself  and  to  many 
others  as  of  interest  and  importance.  I  have 
found  myself  using  so  often,  in  practical 
counsel  and  in  ethical  and  theological  in- 
quiry, the  psychological  principles  here  ap- 
pealed to,  that  it  has  seemed  reasonable  to 
hope  that  the  book  might  have  some  real 
service  to  render  to  others.  For  it  is  but 
too  obvious,  on  the  one  hand,  that  many 
students  complete  their  courses  in  psychology 
with  but  small  sense  of  its  direct  bearing 
on  life,  and  so  fail  to  grasp  its  real  signifi- 
cance, through  the  very  lack  of  application 
of  its  principles;  and,  on  the  other  hand, 
that  men  generally  need,  and  are  able  intel- 
ligently to  receive,  much  of  the  best  that 
psychology  has  to  give,  but  that  it  is  difficult 
to  find  in  any  fullness  except  in  more  or  less 
technical  treatises.  There  seemed,  there- 
fore, to  be  a  place  and  a  need  for  the 
attempt  here  made. 

While,    then,   the    book   does   not   aim   to 


vm  PREFACE 


be  a  technical  treatise  upon  psychology,  nor 
profess  to  embody  the  results  of  original 
psychological  investigation,  it  does  distinctly 
aim  to  make  generally  available  the  most 
valuable  suggestions  for  living  that  can  be 
drawn  from  the  results  of  the  best  workers 
in  this  field.  I  have,  consequently,  quoted 
freely  and  sometimes  at  length,  both  to  give 
the  reader  immediate  access  to  the  original 
authority  for  the  psychological  facts,  and 
to  give  him  opportunity  to  judge  of  the  just- 
ness of  the  inference  drawn  in  any  given  case. 
For  I,  of  course,  do  not  mean  to  hold  those 
from  whom  I  quote  responsible  for  all  my 
inferences,  though  I  have  meant  that  these 
should  be  reached  with  scrupulous  care. 

The  very  plan  of  the  book  makes  my 
indebtedness  to  others  very  large — an  in- 
debtedness which  I  have  intended  to  recog- 
nize in  each  case  by  specific  reference. 

At  the  same  time,  it  is  hoped  that  the 
book  does  not  lack  the  original  suggestive- 
ness  and  the  unity  that  should  give  added 
significance  to  the  individual  suggestions. 
The  grouping  of  the  material,  and  some  of 
the  indicated  ethical,  religious,  and  generally 
practical  applications  and  implications  of 
psychological  principles,  it  is  hoped,  may  not 


PREFACE  IX 

be  without  interest  even  to  those  who  have 
given  considerable  attention  to  psychological 
study.  The  discussion  aims  to  give  in  the 
field  of  practical  living  something  of  that 
sense  of  unity  and  sureness  that  the  investi- 
gator in  natural  science  has,  and  that  can 
come  only  from  a  knowledge  of  the  laws 
involved.  In  this  aim  it  joins  hands  with  all 
those  writings  —  much  more  numerous  of 
late — that  have  sought  to  give  to  both  ethics 
and  religion  a  true  psychological  basis. 

The  material  is  gathered  under  four  great 
and  closely  !  interwoven  inferences  from 
modern  psychology.  These  constitute  the 
four  main  divisions  of  the  book.  Under 
each  division  an  attempt  is  made  to  give 
briefly  but  sufficiently  the  psychological  basis, 
and  then  to  point  out  the  most  important 
derived  practical  suggestions.  Even  in  the 
statement  of  the  psychological  facts,  how- 
ever, it  will  be  seen — in  order  to  save  repe- 
tition— the  practical  has  not  been  entirely 
excluded.  The  title  of  the  book,  thus,  grows 
directly  out  of  its  precise  aims. 

At  the  same  time,  it  has  not  seemed  wise 
to  exclude  all  consideration  of  the  broader 
philosophical  bearings  of  the  discussions ; 
and   at  certain  points  their  consideration   has 


X  PREFACE 

seemed  almost  required  for  a  really  satis- 
factory result,  especially  in  parts  of  the  last 
two  divisions  of  the  book.  These  parts  are 
necessarily  somewhat  more  difficult  reading ; 
but  they  will  be  readily  recognized,  and  may 
be,  perhaps,  well  enough  omitted  by  those 
who  are  seeking  only  practical  results.  For 
the  more  philosophically  inclined,  it  is  hoped 
that  these  brief  philosophical  digressions  may 
add  somewhat  to  the  value  and  suggestive- 
ness  of  the  book. 

HENRY  CHURCHILL  KING. 
Oberlin  College,  June,  19051 


CONTENTS 


INTRODUCTION 

PAGE 

The  Four  Great  Inferences  From  Modern  Psychology  .   .        i 


rilE    COMPLEXITY   OF   LIFE:    THE    MULTIPLICITY 
AND    INTRICACY   OF   RELATIONS 

INTRODUCTION 
Not  Confusion,  but  Greater  Richness 


CHAPTER    I 

The  Psychological   Grounds   for   the  Recognition    of  the 

Complexity  of  Life „ 7 

I.    The    Evidence    of    the    Different    Departments    of    Psy- 
chology    7 

1.  Physiological  Psychology ,    .  7 

2.  Race  Psychology 7 

3.  Pathological  Psychology .    ,  7 

4.  Comparative  Psychology ,  8 

5.  Experimental  Method  in ,    .   .    »    .  8 

II.    The  Need  of  a  Wide  Range  of  Interests    .....„<,  9 

III,    The  Relatedness  of  All 14 

1.  Recognition  of  Relatedness  of  All .  14 

2.  Human  Nature  Avenges   Itself  for   Disregard  of  the 

Range  of  Its  Interests 15 

3.  The  Denial  of  the  Possible  Separation  of  the  Sacred 

and  the  Secular 17 

4.  Absorption  in  the  Lower  Defeats  Itself ,  20 

(xi) 


Xll  CONTENTS 

CHAPTER    II 

PAGE 

Recognition    of   the   Paradoxes   of   Life  —  Opposing   Rela- 
tions     22 

I.    The  All-Inclusive  Paradox  of  Ends  and  Means  ....  22 

II.    The  Paradoxes  of  the  Different  Spheres  of  Life    ....  23 

1.  Paradoxes  in  the  Physical  Life 23 

2.  Paradoxes  in  the  Intellectual  Life 24 

3.  Paradoxes  in  the  Mora!  Life 26 

4.  Paradoxes  in  the  Religious  Life 31 

5.  Choosing  One's  Lifework  and  Abiding  Character  — 

The  "Hierarchy  of  Mes" 31 

6.  The    Fundamental    Paradox  of   Life.     Docility  and 

Initiative 32 

CHAPTER    III 

The  Emphasis  of  Psychology  on  Conditions 39 

I.    The  Lessons  of  Natural  Science 40. 

II.    The  Significance  of  Common  Work  and  Duties  ....  42 

III.  No  Magical  Inheritance 44 

IV.  No  Conditions  in  General 45 


THE    UNITY   OF   MAN 

CHAPTER    IV 

The  Unity  of  Mind  and  Body  —  Introduction 47 

I.    Ascetic  Treatment  of  Bodily  Conditions 47 

II.    Not  a  Materialistic  Position ^   .....   ,      49 


CHAPTER    V 

The   Unity  of  Mind  and   Body  —  The  Psychological  Evi- 
dence   , 55 

I.    The  Law  of  Diffusion      55 


CONTENTS  XUl 

PAGE 

II.    Psychical  Effects  of  Bodily  Training 57 

III,  The    Close     Connection    of    the     Will    and     Muscular 

Activity 58 

IV.  The  Physical  Basis  of  Habit 61 

V.    The  Evidence  of  Hypnotism o 63 


CHAPTER    VI 

The  Unity  of  Mind  and  Body — Suggestions  for  Living.  .  64. 

I.    The  Body  Influences  the  Mind 64 

1.  The  Need  of  Weil -Oxygenated  Blood 64 

2.  The    Need    of    Surplus  Nervous    Energy.     Effects  of 

Fatigue 67 

(i)  The  Effects  of  Fatigue  on  Attention  and  Self- 

Control 67 

(2)  Direct  Effect  of   Fatigue  on  Nerve  Conditions  70 

(3)  The    Consequent    Effects    of    Fatigue    on    All 

Perceptions  and  Activities 71 

(4)  The  Need  of  Physical  Training 77 

II.    The  Influence  of  Mind  on   Body 78 

1.  Power  of  Self-Control  Even  in  the  Insane     ....  79 

2.  The  Will  in  Determining  Conditions  of  Health  »    .  80 

(i)  In  Achieving  Rest 80 

(2)  In  Avoiding  Hurry 81 

(3)  In  Meeting  the   Special  Conditions  of  Surplus 

Nervous  Energy , 82 

(4)  In  Control  of  the  Emotions  ...   o    ....    .  82 

3.  Self-Control  Positive,  not  Negative 83 

III.    Mutual  Influence  of  Body  and  Mind  —  Habits      ....  85 

1.  The  Significance  of  Habit  for  Mental  Life    ....  86 

2.  Opportunities   for  Will   Training    in    Formation   of 

Habits  in  Education  .    .    .    . „  88 

3.  James*  Maxims  on  Habit „   .  90 

(i)  Launch  Yourself  with  Decided  Initiative     .   .  91 

(2)  Allow  no  Exceptions 91 

(3)  Seize  the  First  Opportunity  to  Act     .....  92 

(4)  Gratuitous  Exercise  of  Effort 93 


XIV  CONTENTS 

PAGE 

IV.    The  True  Place  of  Asceticism 93 

1.  The  Body  not  Evil  per  se 94 

2.  Asceticism,  As  Negative,  No  Full  Goal  of  Life  .   .  95 

3.  Not  Two  Kinds  of  Christianity 96 

4.  The  True  Asceticism 99 


CHAPTER    VII 

The  Unity  of  the  Mind  —  The  Psychological  Evidence  .  .  103 

I.    Interdependence  of  All  Intellectual  Functions 103^ 

II.    Interdependence  of  Intellect,  Feeling,  and  Will    ....  106 

III.  Trend  Toward  the  Denial  of  Abstract  Elements  in  the 

Mind 108 

IV.  The  Mind's  Constant  Search  for  Unity 108 

CHAPTER    VIII 

The  Unity  of  the  Mind  —  Suggestions  for  Liv:ng iii 

I.    The   Intellectual  Conditions 113 

1.  Intellectual   Helps .  113 

(i)   A  Wide  Circle  of  Permanent  Interests     ...  114 

(2)  Knowledge  of  Oneself 114 

(3)  Discernment  of  What  Moral  Progress  Is  .    .    .  118 

(4)  Particularly,    Clearness    and     Definiteness    in 

Memory,  Imagination,  and  Thinking    .    .    .  120 

2.  Intellectual  Hindrances 124 

(i)  Premature    Multiplication   of    Many  Points  of 

View.    "Truth-hunting" 124 

(2)  "Over-sophistication" 127 

(3)  Making  Insights  Take  the  Place  of  Doing.   .  128 

(4)  Intellectual  Vagueness 130 

(5)  Dangers  in  Habits  of  Study 133 

II.    Emotional  Conditions 135-. 

1.  The  Stimulating  Effect  of  Joyful  Emotions    ....  135 

2.  The  Danger  of  Strained  and  Sham  Emotions  .    .    .  138 

3.  The  Influence  of  Moods  on  Willing 140 

4.  The  Danger  of   Passive  Emotion 141 

5.  The  Need  of  Power  to  Withstand  Strong  Emotion,  142 


CONTENTS  XV 

THE    CENTRAL    IMPORTANCE    OF    WILL 
AND    ACTION 


CHAPTER    IX 


Page 


Fhe  Central  Importance  of  Will  and  Action — The  Psy- 
chological Evidence    .   .    .  .    .   =   .    .   « 145 

I.    The  Suggestion  of  Evolution  .    ..o    .....   o    ..    .  146 

II.    Impulse  to  Action,  Fundamental 146 

III.  The  Natural  Terminus  of  Every  Experience  is  Action    ,  149 

1.  The  Body  Organized   for  Action 149 

(i)  The  Circulation  of  the  Blood  ........  149 

(2)  The  Nervous  System ,    .  150 

(3)  The  Muscular  System 150 

(4)  In  the  Human  Body  as  a  Whole  ......  152 

2.  The  Mind  Organized  for  Action 153 

IV,  For  the  Very  Sake  of  Thought  and   Feeling,  One  Must 

Act 154 

V.    The  Will  in  Attention 159 

VI,    The   Preeminent  Influence  of  Practical  Interests  in   All 

Consciousness 161 

1.  In  Conceiving  and  Naming  Things     . 162 

2.  In  Reasoning 163 

3.  In  Our  Philosophical  Solutions  .    .    .    . 163 

(i)   Influence  of  Practical  Interests     .......  163 

(2)  Philosophy  Depends  on   Practical   Considera- 

tions       165 

(3)  Convictions  Must  be  Wrought  out  in  Action  .  165 

4.  Using  One's  Powers 166 

VIL    Some  Current  Psychological  Emphases 171 

CHAPTER    X 

Fhe   Central  Importance   of  Will  and  Action  —  Sugges- 
tions for  Living 176 

I.    The  Enormous  Place  of  Will  and  Action  in  Life    .   .    .  176 

II.    The  Fundamental  Character  of  Self-Control 180 

I.  Self-Control    Fundamental   to   a    Moral    and    Reli- 
gious Character 180 


XVI  CONTENTS 

rAGi 

2.  Self-Control  Fundamental  to  Happiness      .   .    „   .    .  182 

3.  Self-Control  Fundamental  to  Influence 185 

4.  Self-Control  Positive,  not  Negative 186 

(i)  Object  Must  Continually  Change  for  Us  .    .    .  191 

(2)  The  Possession  of  a  Large  Circle  of  Interests  .  191 

(3)  Persistent  Staying  in  the  Presence  of  the  Best  .  192 
III.    Objectivity  a  Prime  Condition  of  Character,  and  Happi- 
ness, and  Influence 192 

IVc    Work  a  Chief  Means  to  Character,  and  Happiness,  and 

Influence    .    .    .    .    «    •   « iq8 


THE    CONCRETENESS    OF   THE    REAL  — THE 
INTER-RELATEDNESS    OF  ALL 

CHAPTER    XI 

The  Concreteness  of  the  Real  —  The  Psychological  Evi- 
dence, Confirmed  by  the  History  of  Thought    .  .    aio 
I.    The    General    Trend    in    Psychology  Toward    Recogni- 
tion of  this  Concreteness 210 

II.    The  Mind  Made  for  Relations 213 

III.  One    Reason    for    the    Place    and    Power    of    Art    and 

Literature 214 

IV.  The  Influence  of  the  Idea  of  the   Organism  in  the  His- 

tory of  Thought 215 

1.  The  Idea  of  the  Organism  Before  Hegel 216 

2.  The  Idea  of  the  Organism  in  Hegel 216 

3.  The  Idea  of  the  Organism  Since  Hegel      .....  218 
V.    A  New  Protest  Constantly  Needed  in  the  Interest  of  the 

Whole  Man      ^    .    .   »  220 

1.  The  Protest  in  the  History  of  Literature 222 

2.  The  Protest  in  Philosophy 223 

3.  The  Pretest  in  History 224 

4.  The  Protest  in  Education 227 

VI.    The    Emphasis    on    Persons    and    Personal    Relations  — 

The  Social  Self 228 

I.  The  Human  Body  Looks  to  Personal  Association   .    229 


CONTENTS  XVll 

PAGE 

2.  The  Witness  of  Infancy 230 

3.  The  Witness  of  the  Moral  History  of  the  Race  .   .  231 

4.  The  Witness  of  Philosophy 232 

5.  The  Whole  Man,  Revealed  only  in  Personal  Rela- 

tions   .   .    o 233 


CHAPTER    XII 

The  Concreteness  of  the  Real  —  Suggestions  for  Living    .  236 

I.    Respect  for  the  Liberty  and  the  Personality  of  Others    .  236 

1.  Recognition  of  the  Moral  Freedom  of  Others    .    .    .  236 

2.  Recognition  of  the  Sacredness  of  the  Person  ....  239 

(i)   Every  Person  is  an  End  Tn  Himself 239 

(2)  A  Prime  Condition  in  All   Friendship  ....  244 

(3)  A  Test  of  Moral  Progress 245 

II.    The  Power  of  Personal  Association      ...    c    ....    .  246 

1.  Influence  of  Imitation 246 

2.  One  Must  be  Won  to  Character    .........  247 

3.  We  are  Made  for  Personal  Relations 248 

4.  One  Cannot  Learn  to  Love  Alone 249 

5.  Personal  Association  the  Greatest  Means    .   «   o    .   •  249 


RATIONAL  LIVING 


INTRODUCTION 

2.3334 

THE  FOUR   GREAT  INFERENCES  FROM  MODERN 
PSYCHOLOGY 

One  of  the  marked  characteristics  of  this 
realistic  age  of  ours  is  the  enormous  amount 
of  investigation  that  has  been  given  in  the 
last  thirty  years  to  empirical  psychology. 
Wundt's  epoch-making  Outlines  of  Physio- 
logical Psychology  was  published  as  late  as  1874, 
and  his  Leipsic  psychological  laboratory — 
the  first  in  the  world — was  not  founded  until 
1879.  No  other  department  of  study  directly 
connected  with  philosophy  has  had  anything 
like  equal  attention,  or  made  anything  like 
equal  growth.  And  in  no  other  department 
has  America  had  so  noteworthy  a  share,  as 
the  literature  of  the  subject  clearly  shows. 
Such  extended  and  thorough-going  study  of 
the  nature  of  man,  ought  certainly  to  have 
some   meaning   for   practical   living.    It  con- 

A  (0 


RATIONAL     LIVING 


cerns,  therefore,  every  intelligent  man  to  ask 
what  the  significance  of  this  movement  is. 

It  should  be  remembered  from  the  be- 
ginning, how^ever,  that,  although  modern 
psychology  has  been  specially  characterized 
by  emphasis  upon  the  physiological  and 
experimental  sides,  these  lines  of  investiga- 
tion by  no  means  exhaust  the  meaning  of 
this  later  psychological  movement.  For,  as 
Royce  says,  "  One  must  insist  that  the  study 
of  neurological  facts  has,  although  very 
great,  still  only  relative  value  for  the  psy- 
chologist. For  one  thing,  what  the  psycholo- 
gist wants  to  understand  is  mental  life,  and 
to  this  end  he  uses  all  his  other  facts  only 
as  means;  and,  for  the  rest,  any  physical  ex- 
pression of  mental  life  which  we  can  learn  to 
interpret  becomes  as  genuinely  interesting 
to  the  psychologist  as  does  a  brain  function."^ 

The  experimental  method,  too,  it  should  be 
noted,  is  no  attack  on  the  methods  previously 
employed.  Most  sober  psychologists  would 
agree  with  Kiilpe  —  himself  a  most  able 
worker  in  experimental  psychology  —  that 
^^  experiment  can  no  more  take  the  place  of 
introspection  in  psychology  than  it  can  that 
of  observation  in  physics.    It  is  only  able,  as 

^Outlines  of  Psychology,  p.  12. 


INTRODUCTION  3 

it  is  only  intended,  to  supplement  the  pre- 
vious method  by  filling  the  gaps  which 
remain  when  introspection  is  employed  alone, 
by  checking  its  descriptions,  and  by  making 
it  generally  more  reliable."^ 

Using  the  term  modern  psychology,  then, 
to  cover  the  trend  of  all  later  psychological 
investigations,  and  not  merely  those  of  ex- 
perimental or  physiological  psychology,  what 
are  the  most  important  inferences  from 
modern  psychology?   What  does  it  mean? 

The  answer  can  be  given  very  compactly. 
There  seem  to  the  writer  to  be  four  great 
inferences  from  modern  psychology,  and 
each  with  suggestions  for  life  and  charac- 
ter—  that  is,  with  direct  suggestion  of  the 
conditions  of  growth,  of  character,  of  happi- 
ness, and  of  influence.  These  four  infer- 
ences are:  Life  is  complex;  man  is  a  unity; 
will  and  action  are  of  central  importance  ; 
and  the  real  is  concrete.  In  other  words, 
modern  psychology  has  four  great  emphases; 
for  it  may  be  said  to  urge  upon  us  the 
recognition  of  the  multiplicity  and  intricacy  of 
the  relations  everywhere  confronting  us ;  of 
the  essential  unity  of  the  relations  involved 
in    our   own    nature;    of   the    fact    that    this 

*  Outlines  of  Psychology,  p.  10. 


4  RATIONAL    LIVING 

unity  demands  action  and  is  best  expressed 
in  action;  and  that  we  are,  thus,  everywhere 
shut  out  from  resting  in  abstractions  and  must 
find  reality  only  in  the  concrete.  Manifestly 
these  contentions  are  all  closely  interwoven, 
and  they  may  even  be  regarded  as  all 
summed  up  in  the  last  —  as  asserting  the 
inter-relatedness  of  all. 

For  if  only  the  concrete  is  real,  then  life 
is,  in  the  first  place,  no  abstraction  or  series 
of  abstractions,  but  rich  and  complex  beyond 
all  formulation.  In  this  complexity,  secondly, 
no  sharp  lines  can  be  drawn,  all  is  inter- 
woven; the  life  of  man,  therefore,  is  a  unity 
—  body  and  mind.  But  all  experiences, 
bodily  and  mental,  tend  to  terminate  in 
action,  in  which  alone  the  whole  man  is 
seen ;  will  and  action,  then,  are  of  central 
importance.  The  four  propositions  tend  thus 
to  fall  together.  It  is  these  four  propositions 
which  form  the  subjects  of  the  main  divisions 
of  our  entire  inquiry. 


THE    COMPLEXITY   OF   LIFE:    THE 

MULTIPLICITY  AND  INTRICACY 

OF   RELATIONS 

INTRODUCTION 

NOT   CONFUSION,   BUT    GREATER    RICHNESS 

Psychology's  first  emphasis  is  naturally 
upon  the  complexity  of  life  —  the  multipli- 
city and  intricacy  of  the  relations  every- 
where confronting  us.  For  the  first  effect  of 
the  study  of  this  later  psychology,  it  must 
be  confessed,  is  likely  to  prove  confusing 
and  even  bewildering;  the  old  familiar  land- 
marks seem  all  gone.  There  are  no  sharp 
distinctions,  no  hard  and  fast  classifications, 
no  short  and  simple  formulas. 

The  old  way  in  which,  without  hesita- 
tion or  misgiving,  we  built  up  the  structure 
of  our  mental  life  —  combining  simple 
atomic  sensations  into  perceptions,  percep- 
tions into  conceptions,  conceptions  into  judg- 
ments, and  judgments  into  syllogisms  —  is 
suddenly  closed  for  us.  We  are  forced  to 
question  the  truth  of  such  a  process  at  every 
stage.    As  we  face   the   facts  of  modern  psy- 

(s) 


RATIONAL    LIVING 


chological  investigation,  it  is  not  the  simple, 
the  direct,  the  abstract,  that  we  see,  but  the 
necessity  rather  for  what  James  calls  "  the 
reinstatement  of  the  vague  and  inarticulate 
to  its  proper  place  in  our  mental  life."^  It 
is  characteristic,  indeed,  of  the  modern  point 
of  view  that  James  should  begin  his  psycho- 
logical inquiry,  not  with  assumed  simple 
sensations,  but  with  the  attempt  to  point 
out  only  the  chief  characters  of  the  whole 
concrete  stream  of  consciousness.^  The  prob- 
lem is  complex  and  intricate.  Life  seems  to 
have  overflowed  its  banks,  and  we  wonder 
if  it  can  ever  be  brought  under  rule  again. 
But  we  need  not  resist  this  trend  of  the 
newer  psychology.  For  it  is  only  the  refusal 
to  make  the  'formulation  of  life  simple  by 
ignoring  many  of  its  facts.  It  does  not 
mean  final  confusion,  but  only  greater  rich- 
ness. Indeed,  it  may  be  doubted  if  there  is 
anything  that  the  health  of  the  whole  life  — 
physical,  intellectual,  and  spiritual  —  needs 
more,  or  more  continuously,  than  a  strong 
conviction  of  the  complexity  of  life.  We 
may  well  heed,  therefore,  this  insistence  of 
modern  psychology. 

^ Psychtlegy,  Vol.  I,  p.  254. 

'  Psychology,  Vol.  I,  Chap.  IX  ;  Ctr.  Kulpe,  op.  cit.,  p.  32. 


CHAPTER    I 

THE    PSYCHOLOGICAL    GROUNDS    FOR     THE    RECOGNI- 
TION   OF    THE    COMPLEXITY    OF    LIFE 

I.    THE   EVIDENCE  OF  THE    DIFFERENT  DEPART- 
MENTS   OF  PSYCHOLOGY 

Every  one  of  the  departments  of  psycho- 
logical investigation  serves  to  emphasize  this 
complexity.  Even  in  the  field  of  the  older 
psychology — the  study  of  the  normal  mind 
of  the  adult  civilized  man  —  it  is  now^  recog- 
nized that  the  facts  are  far  less  simple  than 
they  at  first  seemed.  The  immense  emphasis 
now^  laid  on  the  accurate  study  of  the 
simpler  phenomena  of  child  life — itself  seen 
to  have  wonderful  variety — is  evidence  of 
this  felt  complexity.  Physiological  psychology 
emphasizes  the  complex  intertwining  at  every 
point  of  the  physical  and  the  psychical, 
especially  the  correlation  of  psychical  with 
brain  processes.  Race  psychology  adds  the 
study  of  national  traits,  and  of  the  relations 
of  all  minds,  civilized  and  barbarous.  Patho- 
logical psychology    affirms    the    essential    unity 

(7) 


RATIONAL    LIVING 


of  normal  and  abnormal  minds,  that  insanity 
itself  only  carries  to  extremes  tendencies 
which  lie  in  us  all.  Comparative  psychology 
goes  a  step  farther  and  calls  attention  to  the 
many  likenesses  between  human  and  animal 
minds.  Finally  the  felt  need  in  psychology 
of  the  experimental  method  that  has  so  largely 
characterized  the  recent  advances  in  the 
subject,  is  itself  a  further  recognition  of  the 
complexity  of  the  psychical  phenomena. 

It  is  not  strange,  then,  that  the  results 
of  such  varied  investigations,  every  one  of 
which  has  something  vital  to  contribute  to 
the  understanding  of  this  enigma  of  our  life, 
should,  at  first  sight,  seem  bewildering. 
"What  is  man?"  It  is  this  question,  in  all 
its  complexity  of  meaning,  that  modern 
psychology  seeks  to  answer. 

And  modern  philosophy  confirms,  here, 
the  psychological  trend.  For  man,  Erdmann 
says,  is  the  great  subject  of  modern  philos- 
ophy— but  man  in  all  the  fullness  of  his 
concrete  existence;  man,  body  and  spirit; 
man,  intellect,  feeling,  and  will;  man,  as 
world  in  little  and  God  in  little ;  man,  as 
summing  up  all  in  a  complexity  of  being, 
rich  past  tracing  out.  For  modern  philos- 
ophy begins,  like  the  Reformation  it  reflects, 


THE     COMPLEXITY    OF    LIFE  9 

in  protest  —  protest  against  the  narrowing  of 
the  interests  of  man,  protest  against  the 
separation  of  sacred  and  secular,  protest 
against  the  denial  of  legitimate  worldly  in- 
terests ;  and  among  all  the  heresies  of  the 
age  it  counts  none  so  great  as  the  heresy  of 
denying  the  complexity  of  the  life  of  man, 
and  of  removing  from  religion  the  most  of 
life. 

II.    THE    NEED    OF   A   WIDE    RANGE  OF 
INTERESTS 

Psychology  speaks  here  with  no  uncertain 
sound.  It  knows  well  that  a  man^s  world  is 
no  greater  than  the  number  of  objects  to 
which  he  can  attend  with  interest;  this  is 
his  world — the  only  world  in  which  he 
really  lives.  He  moves  among  many  other 
things,  but  so  far  as  they  are  ignored,  they 
practically  do  not  exist  for  him.  Psychology 
knows,  too,  that  the  meaning  of  experience^ 
itself,  is  what  we  attend  to;  that  the  envi- 
ronment that  really  makes  us  is  not,  as  is 
so  often  said,  all  that  surrounds  us,  but  only 
those  parts  of  our  surroundings  to  which  we 
attend;  that  a  man's  life  is  measured,  there- 
fore, by  the  interests  to  which  he  can 
respond;    and   that    his   growth   depends   on 


lO  RATIONAL    LIVING 

the  enlarging  of  this  circle  of  interests.  So 
James  says:  "A  man's  empirical  thought  de- 
pends on  the  things  he  has  experienced,  but 
what  these  shall  be  is  to  a  large  extent 
determined  by  his  habits  of  attention.  A 
thing  may  be  present  to  him  a  thousand 
times,  but,  if  he  persistently  fails  to  notice 
it,  it  cannot  be  said  to  enter  into  his  experi- 
ence. We  are  all  seeing  flies,  moths,  and 
beetles  by  the  thousand,  but  to  whom,  save 
an  entomologist,  do  they  say  anything  dis- 
tinct? On  the  other  hand,  a  thing  met  only 
once  in  a  lifetime  may  leave  an  indelible 
experience  in  the  memory.  Let  four  men 
make  a  tour  in  Europe.  One  will  bring  home 
only  picturesque  impressions — costumes  and 
colors,  parks  and  views  and  works  of  archi- 
tecture, pictures  and  statues.  To  another  all 
this  will  be  non-existent ;  and  distances  and 
prices,  populations  and  drainage  -  arrange - 
ments,  door-  and  window -fastenings,  ^nd 
other  useful  statistics  will  take  their  place. 
A  third  will  give  a  rich  account  of  the 
theaters,  restaurants,  and  public  balls,  and 
naught  besides ;  whilst  the  fourth  will  per- 
haps have  been  so  wrapped  in  his  own  sub- 
jective broodings  as  to  tell  little  more  than 
a   few   names   of    places    through   which    he 


THE     COMPLEXITY    OF     LIFE  II 


passed.  Each  has  selected  out  of  the  same 
mass  of  presented  objects  those  which  suited 
his  private  interest,  and  has  made  his  experi- 
ence thereby."^ 

Moreover,  one's  possible  influence  over 
others  depends,  in  no  small  degree,  upon 
the  range  of  his  interests ;  for  influence 
normally  requires  sympathetic  understand- 
ing, and  sympathetic  understanding  means 
the  ability  to  enter  into  the  interests  of  the 
other  man  —  to  see  the  matter  from  his  point 
of  view.  Here  lies  a  main  task  of  every 
teacher,  and  of  every  leader  of  men,  who 
does  not  mean  to  be  a  mere  demagogue. 
If  one  cares  to  exert  the  highest  influence, 
then, —  not  merely  to  dominate  another's 
choices — he  must  seek  such  an  influence  as 
the  other  shall  be  able  to  recognize  as 
simply  the  demand  of  his  own  sanest  and 
best  self.  That  influence  is  possible  only  to 
the  man  who  has  sufficient  breadth  of  in- 
terests to  enter  into  another's  life  with 
understanding,    respect,    and   sympathy. 

For  breadth  and  depth  of  influence,  one 
needs  especially  to  be  always  attuned  to  the 
"ever- recurring  fundamental  characteristics 
of  human  life" — the  common,  simple,  large, 

^Psychology,  Vol.  I,  pp.  286-287. 


12  RATIONAL    LIVING 

and  deep  interests  of  the  race.  Only  so  can 
one  carry  something  of  the  appeal  made,  for 
example,  by  a  great  work  of  art.  And  the 
highly  educated  man  needs  to  be  carefully 
on  his  guard  just  here.  He  must  not  be- 
come a  mere  member  of  a  clique. 

Psychology  knows,  moreover,  that  what- 
ever/r^^^/o/w  a  man  possesses — the  condition  of 
the  very  possibility  of  character — depends  on 
his  having  more  than  one  interest  to  which 
he  can  attend.  Moral  victory  requires  the 
power  to  attend  to  something  else  than  the 
temptation  which  threatens  completely  to 
engross  one.  It  is  often,  thus,  a  vital  matter, 
for  the  very  sake  of  one's  freedom,  that 
he  should  have  more  than  one  absorbing 
interest. 

Even  sanity  requires  a  reasonable  breadth 
of  interests.  Peary  has  borne  witness  out  of 
his  long  Arctic  experience,  that  the  educated 
man,  even  if  other  things  were  not  wholly 
equal,  showed  greater  capacity  than  the 
uneducated  for  endurance  of  the  privation 
and  hardship  of  Arctic  exploration  and  the 
Arctic  night,  for  the  very  reason  that  he  had 
more  things  in  which  he  could  be  interested. 
One  of  the  chief  marks  of  insanity,  indeed, 
is    the   all-absorbing,    single  "insistent  idea.'* 


THE    COMPLEXITY    OF    LIFE  13 

A  "store  of  permanent  and  valuable  interests" 
is,  therefore,  both  a  sign  and  a  guard  of 
sanity. 

For  all  these  reasons  psychology  knows 
that  the  acquisition  of  a  considerable  number 
of  permanent  and  valuable  interests  is  one 
of  the  prime  objects  of  education,  and  one 
of  the  main  factors  in  a  "reasonable  char- 
acter." A  chief  test  of  one's  education,  there- 
fore, is  the  question  whether  it  has  awakened 
in  one's  mind  some  permanent  and  valuable 
interests.  So  Sully  says:  "The  teacher  should 
regard  it  as  an  important  part  of  the  training 
of  the  attention  to  arouse  interest,  to  deepen 
and  fix  it  in  certain  definite  directions,  and 
gradually  to  enlarge  its  range.  Volkmann 
remarks  that  the  older  pedagogic  had  as  its 
rule:  'Make  your  instruction  interesting'; 
whereas,  the  newer  has  the  precept,  'Instruct 
in  such  a  way  that  an  interest  may  awake 
and  remain  active  for  life'."^  A  similar  aim 
every  thoughtful  man  must  have  in  mind  in 
his  own  self -training.  And  it  needs  hardly 
to  be  pointed  out  how  imperative  is  time 
in  the  building  up  of  a  wide  range  of  inter- 
ests. As  Royce  says:  "It  is  the  leisurely 
traveler    who    finds    time    to    cultivate    new 

^  Outlines  of  Psychology,  p.  105. 


14  RATIONAL    LIVING 

habits,  and  thus  gradually  to  see  the  wonders 
as  they  are."^ 

III.   THE   RELATEDNESS    OF   ALL 

Psychology's  emphasis  upon  the  com- 
plexity of  life — the  multiplicity  and  intricacy 
of  the  relations  involved — implies  the  recog- 
nition of  the  relatedness  of  all,  and  so  sug- 
gests at  once  that  the  degree  in  which  any 
interest  exists  for  us  depends  upon  the  degree 
in  which  we  have  brought  it  into  connection 
with  the  rest  of  life.  We  are  awake  to  the 
full  significance  of  any  idea  only  when  we 
see  it  in  all  its  varied  bearings.  There  are, 
thus,  widely  different  ^^ degrees  of  wakefulness'''' 
to  even  the  highest  interests.  When  one 
feels  the  difference  between  a  dead  and  a 
live  truth — a  truth  that  he  took  by  rote  and 
the  same  truth  born  again  within  him, — he 
may  well  wonder  if  he  were  wholly  awake 
before.  To  feel  the  same  thing  continuously, 
Hobbes  long  ago  saw,  is  practically  to  feel 
nothing  at  all.  "A  completely  uniform  and 
unchanged  condition,"  says  Hofifding,  "has 
a  tendency  to  arrest  consciousness."^ 

^  Outlines  of  Psychology^  p.  228. 
*  Outlines  of  Psychology,  p.  45. 


THE     COMPLEXITY    OF    LIFE  15 

So  Lotze  says :  "By  attention  we  gain  some- 
thing merely  in  case  the  content  mentally 
represented  gives  occasion  for  its  work  to  our 
relating  and  comparing  faculty  of  knowledge. 
Even  an  altogether  simple  content  is  at  least 
compared  by  us  with  other  simple  contents, 
or  with  itself  at  different  moments  of  its  dura- 
tion. If  we  disregard  this  fact,  then  the  mere 
persistence  of  the  content,  with  whatever 
intensity  it  may  occur,  is  of  absolutely  no 
help  to  us.  It  is  understood,  finally,  that 
this  relating  of  one  content  to  another  can 
be  carried  further  at  pleasure.  We  can  there- 
fore certainly  distinguish  yet  other  different 
degrees  of  consciousness  concerning  the  con- 
tent of  an  idea ; — and  this  according  as  we 
mentally  represent  the  idea  itself  and  its  own 
nature,  or  its  connection  with  other  ideas, 
or,  finally,  its  value  and  significance  for  the 
totality  of  our  personal  life."^  Only  in  the  last 
case  does  the  idea  or  interest  have  for  us  its 
full  value  ;  and  this  evidently  requires  the  com- 
pletest  recognition  of  the  relatedness  of  all. 

It  is,  indeed,  not  too  much  to  say,  that 
human  nature  everywhere  avenges  itself  for  any 
lack  of  reasonable  regard  for  the  wide  range  of 
its   interests.     Many    illustrations    will    suggest 

^Outlines  of  Psychology,  pp.  45-46. 


1 6  RATIONAL    LIVING 

themselves.  The  Cavalier  needs  the  correc- 
tion of  the  Puritan;  and  the  Puritan  the 
correction  of  the  Cavalier.  Oberlin  couldn't 
paint  all  its  buildings  red  in  the  early  days, 
though  it  was  proved  conclusively  that  red 
was  the  cheapest  and  most  durable  paint,  and 
therefore  ought  to  be  used ;  human  nature 
was  too  much  for  it.  It  is  a  genuine  touch 
of  nature  that  makes  Mrs.  Ward's  Marcella 
rightly  but  iilogically  retain  a  rich  rug  for 
her  bare  lodging,  even  when  she  has  left  all 
the  world  behind  for  her  work  among  the 
poor.  The_Jack  of  a  sense  of  humor  has 
turned  many  a  wise  man  into  a  fool.  The 
conscientious  denial  by  a  man  of  the  value 
of  the  beautiful  has  more  than  once  wrought 
disastrously  in  the  character  of  his  children. 
The  endeavor  rigorously  to  rule  out  the 
simply  recreative  has,  in  whole  lives  and 
generations,  brought  speedy  punishment. 
The  attempt  to  annihilate  the  physical  in 
him  has,  for  many  a  monk  of  the  desert,  kept 
his  attention  fixed  the  more  fatally  on  the 
physical.  The  distrust  of  truth  in  all  but 
one  direction  has  made  possible  for  the 
Church  its  not  wholly  creditable  history  in 
relation  to  science.  This  exclusive  attitude 
is  nowhere  justified. 


THE    COMPLEXITY    OF    LIFE  1 7 

And  one  can  hardly  fail  to  see  that  this 
recognition  of  the  relatedness  of  all  neces- 
sarily carries  with  it  a  denial  of  the  possible 
separation  of  the  sacred  and  the  secular.  What 
has  already  been  said  concerning  the  need 
of  a  wide  range  of  interests  shows  that  the 
very  constitution  of  the  mind  demands,  for 
the  sake  of  the  higher  interests  themselves, 
that  they  do  not  receive  exclusive  attention. 
A  broad  and  sane  view  of  even  the  highest 
interest  requires  sympathetic  understanding 
of  many  other  interests.  The  reaction,  too, 
in  one's  own  case,  which  is  certain  to  follow 
exclusive  attention  to  any  subject,  is  most 
disastrous  to  the  interests  which  it  was 
sought  thus  exclusively  to  conserve.  More- 
over, if  one  wishes  to  make  some  higher  in- 
terest prevail  with  others,  he  must  fulfil  the 
conditions  of  influence,  and  these,  again,  we 
have  seen,  demand  a  broad  range  of  interests. 
From  every  point  of  view,  therefore,  it  is 
seen  that  no  ideal  interest  can  conquer  by 
simple  negation,  and  that  no  idea!  interest 
has  anything  to  gain  by  mere  exclusiveness. 
For  the  denial  of  legitimate  worldly  interests 
only  narrows  the  possible  sphere  of  both 
morals  and  religion ;  it  makes  the  ethical 
and  the  religious  life  less,  not  more,  signifi- 


RATIONAL    LIVING 


cant.  For  it  is  the  glory  of  religion  not  to 
be  set  apart  from  life,  but  to  permeate  it 
powerfully. 

So,  too,  in  the  supposed  interests  of  re- 
ligion, we  too  often  lay  exclusive  emphasis 
on  certain  specific  channels  of  revelation, 
and  virtually  deny  that  God  is  creator  of  any 
but  a  small  part  of  his  world,  and  thereby 
shut  ourselves  up  against  all  other  channels 
by  which  he  might  speak  to  us.  This  is  no 
mean  and  narrow  world  in  which  we  live, 
no  cribbed  and  confined  existence  to  which 
we  are  called.  God  made  us  complex,  and 
there  is  no  single  avenue  of  approach  to  our 
being  that  he  does  not  know,  and  through 
which  he  would  not  speak. 

The  history  of  philosophy  corroborates 
the  witness  of  psychology  here  with  telling 
effect.  Religion's  most  dangerous  enemies 
have  been  nourished  in  its  own  fold,  in  this 
very  spirit  of  exclusiveness.  The  mystics  of 
the  seventeenth  century,  for  example,  with 
their  denial  of  the  trustworthiness  of  the 
reason,  which  was  made  for  the  sake  of 
exalting  faith,  definitely  prepared  the  way  for 
a  sensationalism  which  ended  logically  in 
the  French  Enlightenment,  with  its  attempt 
to    sweep   not  only  historic    Christianity,  but 


THE     COMPLEXITY    OF     LIFE  IQ 

all  religion  and  even  morality  from  the 
earth. ^ 

So,  too,  the  weapon  that  in  the  years  just 
past  has  been  used  most  effectively  against 
revealed  religion  —  the  doctrine  of  the  rela- 
tivity of  human  knowledge  —  was  forged  by 
Hamilton  and  Mansell  in  defense  of  Chris- 
tianity. And  to-day,  no  possible  attacks  upon 
Christianity  from  without  are  half  so  dan- 
gerous as  the  still  too  common  assumption 
within  of  the  actual  and  natural  antagonism 
of  faith  and  reason,  of  religion  and  science, 
of  religion  and  morality,  of  the  sacred  and 
the  secular.  For  the  sake  of  exalting  religion, 
we  treat  it  as  something  utterly  apart,  only 
to  pay  the  penalty  of  finding  it,  in  the  end, 
put  utterly  aside  from  the  real  life  of  man. 

And  the  true  significance,  on  the  other 
hand,  of  some  of  the  most  hopeful  religious 
movements  of  our  time,  is  to  be  found  in  a 
genuine,  even  where  half-unconscious,  effort 
to  bring  religion  everywhere  into  touch  with 
life,  and  with  all  of  life,  to  make  man's 
relation  to  God  a  reality.  This  is  the  religious 
significance  of  such  phenomena  as  the  higher 
criticism,  the  greatly  increasing  reverence  of 
men    of    science    for   religion,    the    growing 

*  Cf.  Erdmann,  History  of  Philosophy,  Vol.  II,  pp.  99  ff. 


20  RATIONAL    LIVING 

insistence  that  all  things  are  to  be  so  used 
as  to  minister  to  the  spirit, —  that  the  whole 
world,  according  to  Canon  Fremantle's  con- 
ception, is  "the  subject  of  redemption." 

It  follows  that,  just  as  exclusive  atten- 
tion to  the  higher  interests  has  its  inevitable 
reaction,  so,  too,  the  absorption  in  the  lower 
defeats  itself.  A  man's  life  can  be  no  larger 
than  the  objects  to  which  it  is  given.  Things 
pass  away,  and  even  the  desire  for  them 
fails.  It  is  only  he  that  does  the  will  of 
God,  St.  John  reminds  us,  and  so  gives  him- 
self to  the  really  permanent,  who  abides  for- 
ever. His  life  is  poor  indeed  who  has  not 
gained  a  store  of  valuable  and  permanent 
interests.  Without  these,  even  the  lower 
interests  themselves  must  fail  to  give  their 
full  contribution.  The  full  pulse  of  life  can- 
not be  felt  without  a  wide  range  of  interests, 
and  a  thoughtful  relating  of  each  to  the  rest 
of  life. 

We  are  learning  to  recognize,  we  may 
hope,  the  complexity  of  life. 

It  means  much  for  rational  living  when 
the  complexity  of  life  has  been  fairly  recog- 
nized with  its  logical  consequences.  For 
this  implies  that  there  can  be  no  rule-of- 
thumb    methods,    no  "patent    process"  char- 


THE    COMPLEXITY    OF    LIFE  21 

acter,  no  magical  inheritance  of  results.  In 
particular,  this  assertion  of  the  complexity  of 
life  involves  recognition  of  the  paradoxes  of 
life  and  emphasis  on  conditions.  Both  have 
direct  suggestions  for  living,  and  may  be 
made  to  include  the  most  important,  practi- 
cal inferences  from  psychology's  first  great 
insistence  —  the  complexity  of  life. 


CHAPTER   II 

RECOGNITION   OF   THE    PARADOXES   OF  LIFE- 
OPPOSING  RELATIONS 

One  cannot  face  the  problem  set  by 
the  compHcated  relations  of  his  existence 
without  finding  himself  confronted  again 
and  again  with  the  necessity  of  fulfilling 
relations  seemingly  opposed.  Life  constantly 
makes  paradoxical  demands  upon  us.  And 
we  have  not  admitted  the  complexity  of  life 
to  much  purpose  if  we  have  not  seen,  and 
in  part,  at  least,  solved  the  paradoxes  that 
meet  us  in  every  sphere  of  our  being. 

I.     THE    ALL-INCLUSIVE    PARADOX    OF   ENDS 

AND    MEANS 

Life  itself  is  a  paradox.  Means  seem 
often  at  war  with  ends,  mechanism,  with  the 
ideals  for  which  alone  it  exists.  Only  the 
ends  are  of  absolute  value,  yet  the  means 
are  indispensable  to  their  attainment.  The 
actual    and    necessary  are   not  the  ideal ;   the 

(22) 


THE     PARADOXES    OF    LIFE  23 

n  and  the  must  cannot  give  us  the  ought  \ 
and  yet  only  through  the  use  of  the  actual 
and  necessary  can  anything  ideal  be  achieved. 
And  the  question  of  the  final  harmony  of 
mechanical  means  and  ideal  ends  —  the  final 
harmony  of  the  /j,  the  must^  and  the  ought — 
is  for  us  all  the  question  of  questions.  Its 
complete  answer  would  be  a  final  philosophy. 
So  Lotze  can  make  it  the  thesis  of  his 
entire  philosophical  system  to  "  show  how 
absolutely  universal  is  the  extent,  and  at  the 
same  time  how  completely  subordinate  the 
significance  of  the  mission  which  mechanism 
has  to  fulfil  in  the  structure  of  the  world. "^ 

II.     THE   PARADOXES    OF   THE    DIFFERENT 
SPHERES  OF   LIFE 

In  the  physical  realm,  as  has  been  often 
noted,  the  paradox  remains.  The  great  hin- 
drance to  all  motion  is  friction,  yet  with- 
out friction  there  can  be  no  motion.  There 
is  an  abiding  animal  body,  yet  every  ele- 
ment of  it  is  in  flux.  In  our  own  physical 
life,  there  is  a  peculiar  paradox;  it  is  con- 
tained in  the  not  infrequent  phrase  of  our 
time — "  power     through     repose."      Physical 

^  Microcosmus,  p.  xvi. 


24  RATIONAL    LIVING 

relaxation  is  necessary  to  sustained  energy ; 
it  is  much  to  have  learned  really  to  relax 
strained  muscles  and  nerves — to  let  go  of 
oneself;  yet  relaxation  may  become  nerve- 
less, spineless  flabbiness.  We  must  learn  to 
meet  the  paradox. 

In  the  intellectual  life  no  characteristic 
of  consciousness  is  more  marked  than  its 
selective  nature,  which  contains  in  itself  a 
paradox — the  power  to  attend  and  the  power 
to  ignore ;  and  the  two  most  fundamental 
functions  of  intellectual  activity  are  seemingly 
opposed  —  discrimination  and  assimilation  — 
the  discernment  of  likenesses  and  the  dis- 
cernment of  differences.  Sully  suggests, 
after  Aristotle,  that  the  best  mental  habits 
are  usually  means  between  extremes,  a  com- 
bining of  opposites.  Thus  a  "  skilful  man- 
agement of  the  memory"  demands  forgetting 
as  well  as  remembering,  "  detecting  what  is 
important  and  overlooking  what  is  unimpor- 
tant." In  the  proper  training  of  the  imagi- 
nation there  must  be  both  restraint  and 
stimulation — restraint  of  immoderate  fancy 
through  developing  judgment  and  reason, 
stimulus  through  furnishing  materials  and 
motive.^ 

^  Sully,  Outlines  of  Psychology,  1889,  pp.  297,  326. 


THE    PARADOXES    OF    LIFE  25 

Our  intellectual  life  is  a  constant  struggle, 
too,  between  what  Professor  James  calls 
"genius  and  old-fogyism" — between  open- 
mindedness  and  conservatism,  between  per- 
ceiving the  new  as  new  and  assimilating  the 
new  to  the  old  ;  and  neither  factor  can  be  given 
up.  In  James'  words  :  "There  is  an  everlasting 
struggle  in  every  mind  between  the  tendency 
to  keep  unchanged,  and  the  tendency  to  ren- 
ovate, its  ideas.  Our  education  is  a  ceaseless 
compromise  between  the  conservative  and 
the  progressive  factors."  "Hardly  any  one  of 
us  can  make  new  heads  easily  when  fresh  ex- 
periences come.  Most  of  us  grow  more  and 
more  enslaved  to  the  stock  conceptions  with 
which  we  have  once  become  familiar,  and 
less  and  less  capable  of  assimilating  impres- 
sions in  any  but  the  old  ways.  Old-fogyism, 
in  short,  is  the  inevitable  terminus  to  which 
life  sweeps  us  on."  On  the  other  hand, 
"genius,  in  truth,  means  little  more  than 
the  faculty  of  perceiving  in  an  unhabitual 
way."^  An  evident  paradox  confronts  us 
here.  We  must  seek  to  relate  new  knowl- 
edge to  that  already  gained  ;  but  we  must,  at 
the  same  time,  if  there  is  to  be  any  growth 
at   all,    be    sure    to    recognize  what   is    really 

^Psychology,  Vol.  II,  pp.  109,  no. 


26  RATIONAL    LIVING 

new,  as  new.  So  Sully  says:  "Excellence  of 
judgment  in  this  respect  lies  between  two 
extremes  of  instability  and  obstinacy."  "A 
sound  judgment,  too,  combines  a  measure 
of  intellectual  independence  with  a  due  re- 
gard  for  the  claims  of  others'  convictions."^ 

The  ideal  is,  while  fully  recognizing  the 
new  as  new,  to  connect  all  new  acquisitions 
logically  with  the  old,  making  all  needful  re- 
adjustments to  that  end,  and  so  to  be  able 
to  command  the  whole  store.  This  ideal  is 
rarely  fulfilled.  It  often  happens  that  our 
ideas  for  a  long  time  seem  hardly  to  have  met 
at  all,  and  we  wake  up  after  some  sudden 
bringing  of  them  face  to  face,  to  find  that  we 
have  been  holding  in  our  minds,  with  comfor- 
table unconcern,  ideas  actually  irreconcilable. 
Such  a  discovery  may  be  epoch-making  in 
a  man's   intellectual   growth. 

In  moral  life  and  influence,  paradoxes 
repeatedly   recur. 

In  decision  a  double  demand  is  constantly 
laid  upon  us :  make  deliberation  habitual, 
yet  decide  promptly  when  the  evidence  is 
once  in.  Great  differences  of  temperament  are 
to  be  recognized  here;  some  children  find  it 
almost  impossible   to   decide   anything,  while 

^  op.  cit.,  p.  410. 


THE     PARADOXES     OF     LIFE  27 

Others  are  uniformly  precipitate  in  their  deci- 
sions. Grizel,  it  will  be  remembered,  said, 
"It  is  so  easy  to  make  up  one's  mind";  while 
"sentimental  Tommy"  replied,  "It's  easy  to 
you  that  has   just  one  mind,   but  if  you   had 

as  many  minds  as  I  have !"    One  needs 

to  take  these  temperamental  differences  into 
account  for  himself  and  others ;  but  the  goal 
to  be  aimed  at  is  clear.  There  must  be 
neither  the  rash  judgment  that  jumps  at 
conclusions,  nor  the  ever -hesitating  judg- 
ment that  finds  decision  almost  impossible. 
There  are  circumstances  in  life  when  almost 
any  prompt  decision  is  of  far  more  conse- 
quence than  the  best  decision  reached  too 
late.  "The  ideal  of  a  good  character,"  an- 
other says,  "is  a  combination  of  promptitude 
in  following  the  right  when  the  right  is 
manifest,  with  wariness  and  a  disposition  to 
reflect  and  choose  rationally  and  rightly 
whenever  the  right  course  is  not  at  first 
apparent."^ 

Professor  Palmer  puts  a  similar  paradox 
in  his  own  way,  when  he  says:  "It  is  mean- 
ingless, then,  to  ask  whether  we  should  be 
intuitive  and  spontaneous,  or  considerate  and 
deliberate.     There    is     no    such    alternative. 

1  Sully,  op.  cit.,  p.  667. 


28  RATIONAL    LIVING 

We  need  both  dispositions.  We  should  seek 
to  attain  a  condition  of  swift  spontaneity,  of 
abounding  freedom,  of  the  absence  of  all 
restraint,  and  should  not  rest  satisfied  with 
the  conditions  in  which  we  were  born.  But 
we  must  not  suffer  that  even  the  new  nature 
should  be  allowed  to  become  altogether 
natural.  It  should  be  but  the  natural  engine 
for  spiritual  ends,  itself  repeatedly  scrutinized 
with  a  view  to  their  better  fulfilment."^  This 
view  of  the  moral  life  is  allied  not  only  with 
the  paradox  in  decision,  but  even  more 
closely  with  the  fundamental  paradox  of  the 
moral  life  in  self-assertion  and  self-surrender, 
considered  a  little  later. 

In  the  moral  life,  too,  quietism  wars  with 
enthusiasm  —  the  mood  of  the  East  with  the 
mood  of  the  West — and  yet  we  can  spare 
neither.  To  feel  oneself  in  the  grasp  of  a 
"vast  and  predestined  order"  stifles  human 
initiative;  but,  on  the  other  hand,  to  lose 
all  sense  of  any  plan  larger  than  our  own, — 
any  on-working  of  universal  forces,  in  line 
with  which  we  may  do  our  work,  is  to  take 
the  heart  out  of  our  work,  and  to  make  a 
life-calling  impossible.  A  true  quietism  is, 
thus,  the  very  root  of  a  genuine  enthusiasm. 

^  The  Nature  of  Goodness,  p.  240. 


THE    PARADOXES    OF    LIFE  29 

We  must  be  able  to  reach  Browning's  "All's 
love,  yet  all's  law." 

In  this  very  conviction  of  the  complexity 
of  life  which  we  have  been  considering, 
there  is  a  particularly  difficult  paradox  to  be 
faced.  With  this  broad  conviction  of  the 
essential  complexity  of  life,  how  are  we  to 
combine  a  true  simplicity  F  What  is  the  real 
demand  of  the  simple  life?  Does  it  mean 
cutting  off  or  ignoring  any  sides  of  our  being? 
We  have  already  seen  that  ideal  interests 
cannot  gain  by  a  spirit  of  exclusiveness.  But 
the  true  breadth  is  not  lack  of  discrimination. 
It  is  but  a  poor  and  illogical  protest  against 
the  Puritan's  indiscriminate  condemnation  of 
much  that  was  good,  to  react  to  an  equally 
indiscriminate  acceptance  either  of  good  and 
bad  alike,  or  of  all  goods  as  of  equal  value. 
A  self-indulgent  and  merely  sporting  people 
cannot  be  a  great  people.  But  a  true  sim- 
plicity and  a  reasonable  recognition  of  the 
complexity  of  life  alike  call  for  a  discrimi- 
nation that  can  both  recognize  all  goods  as 
goods,  and  yet  see  and  rigorously  treat  the 
lesser  goods  as  lesser;  and  that  means,  if 
need  be,  the  sacrifice  of  the  lesser  unhesi- 
tatingly to  the  greater.  This  is  both  the 
broad  and  the  simple  life. 


30  RATIONAL    LIVING 

So,  too,  there  is  the  further  paradox  of 
emotion  to  be  shunned,  and  emotion  to  be 
welcomed.    The   false  emotion  that  exhausts, 

—  the  strain  that  is  drain,  the  forced,  the 
high-strung,  the  hysterical, —  is  at  perpetual 
war  with  the  true  emotion  that  invigorates, 
that  comes,  that  is  not  manufactured,  and  that 
is  the  sign  of  reserved  power.  And  one  of  the 
great  weaknesses,  as  we  shall  see,  both  in 
friendship  and  in  religion,  is  failure  to  dis- 
criminate clearly  these  two  kinds  of  emotions. 

Even  in  influence  there  is  a  paradox,  and 
the  solution  is  not  so  easy  as  is  often  assumed  ; 
for  there  are  two  kinds  of  "weaker  brethren"; 

—  not  only  those  for  whom  eating  flesh  is 
sin  and  whom  you  stumble  by  eating,  but 
also  those  for  whom  it  is  no  sin,  and  whom 
you  stumble  by  making  it  a  sin.  Between 
these  two  classes  one  has  always  to  guide 
his  course ;  both  are  to  be  regarded ;  both 
lay  duties  upon  us.  And  the  duty  of  develop- 
ing a  proper  conscience  in  another  may  often 
be  as  imperative  as  the  duty  of  removing  all 
possible  temptation  from  his  path.  It  is  often 
very  difficult  to  decide  which  duty  is  para- 
mount in  a  given  case.  One  needs,  at  the 
very  least,  to  be  sure  that  his  decision  is  not 
determined  by  his  own  selfish  desire. 


THE     PARADOXES     OF     LIFE  31 

Religion^  too,  has  to  steer  between  a  super- 
stitiousness  that  sees  the  magically  supernat- 
ural everywhere,  and  a  materialistic  realism 
that  sees  God  nowhere.  It  must  have  a  firm 
hold  on  ideals,  on  the  spiritual  world,  or  lose 
its  very  existence;  but  it  must  believe  as 
well  that  these  ideals  can  be  realized  through 
mechanical  means,  or  give  up  any  power  in 
actual  life.  The  religious  man  must  be  "hum- 
bly-proud," as  Erdmann  says, — humble  in 
view  of  the  "=;ternal  and  infinite  plans  of 
God;  proud,  as  called  to  a  possible  and  an 
"imperishable  work  in  the  world." 

In  similar  fashion,  religion  has  to  find  its 
way  between  rationalism  and  mysticism.  It 
can  have  no  war  with  reason;  but  it  must 
insist  that  the  true  reason  must  take  account 
of  all  the  data — emotional  and  volitional  as 
well  as  intellectual — that  a  man  can  feel  and 
do  and  experience  more  than  he  can  tell. 
It  must  deny,  therefore,  both  a  narrow  intel- 
lectualism  and  an  irrational  mysticism.  To 
keep  the  two  tendencies  in  proper  balance 
is  one  of  the  pressing  problems  of  a  man's 
personal  religious  life. 

The  choosing  of  one^ s  lifework  and  one^s 
abiding  character^  again,  is  a  choice  among 
several    possible    mesy    which,    however   good 


32  RATIONAL    LIVING 

separately,  cannot  possibly  coexist.  "Not  that 
I  would  not,  if  I  could,"  says  James,  "be 
both  handsome  and  fat  and  well-dressed,  and 
a  great  athlete,  and  make  a  million  a  year, 
be  a  wit,  a  bon-vivant^  and  a  lady-killer  as 
well  as  a  philosopher ;  a  philanthropist,  states- 
man, warrior,  and  African  explorer,  as  well 
as  a  'tone-poet'  and  saint.  But  the  thing  is 
simply  impossible.  The  millionaire's  work 
would  run  counter  to  the  saint's ;  the  bon- 
vivant  and  the  philanthropist  would  trip  each 
other  up  ;  the  philosopher  and  the  lady-killer 
could  not  well  keep  house  in  the  same  tene- 
ment of  clay.  ...  So  the  seeker  of  his 
truest,  strongest,  deepest  self  must  review 
the  list  carefully  and  pick  out  the  one  on 
which  he  is  to  stake  his  salvation."^ 

But  this  one  "me"  being  chosen,  even  then 
the  future  potential  better  self  is  always  at 
war  with  the  present,  however  good.  One 
can  build  only  on  the  present  self,  yet  he 
must  leave  it  behind.  He  must  both  deny  it 
and  affirm  it.  The  ideal  potential  self  passes 
continual  judgment  on  the  present  self. 

The  problem  of  life  becomes,  thus, 
everywhere  a  paradox,  which  can  be  defi- 
nitely   stated.      A    fundamental    paradox    is 

^Psyckology,  Vol.  I,  pp.  309,  310. 


THE     PARADOXES    OF    LIFE  33 

involved  in  our  very  natures,  as  is  perhaps 
indicated  most  clearly  by  Professor  Royce's 
classification  of  mental  phenomena\  He 
denotes  two  of  the  three  fundamental  heads 
of  his  classification  as  docility  and  initiative^ 
and  defines  these  terms  as  follows:  "By  the 
docility  of  an  animal  we  mean  the  capacity 
shown  in  its  acts  to  adjust  these  acts  not 
merely  to  a  present  situation,  but  to  the  rela- 
tion between  this  present  situation  and  what 
has  occurred  in  the  former  life  of  this  organ- 
ism. .  .  .  The  term  '  docility '  is  chosen 
as  a  convenient  name  both  for  the  physical 
manifestation  of  the  animal's  power  to  profit 
by  experience,  and  for  the  mental  processes 
that  accompany  this  same  power."  In  this 
sense,  docility  gives  us  the  law  of  habit.  "Its 
interpretation  in  terms  of  consciousness  is, 
that  any  conscious  process  which  is  of  a  type 
that  has  occurred  before  tends  to  recur  more 
readily,  up  to  the  point  where  the  limit  of 
training  has  been  reached,  and  to  displace  rival 
conscious  processes,  according  as  its  type  has 
frequently  occurred."  And  the  law  of  habit 
involves  the  law  of  association,  "the  assimila- 
tion of  new  habits  to  old  ones,"  and,  in  the 
social  life,  the  constant  influence  of  imitation. 

^Outlines  of  Psychology  y  pp.  viii,  x,  38,  53,  198,  234,  279,  etc. 
C 


34  RATIONAL    LIVING 

On  the  other  hand,  "  The  sort  of  mental 
initiative  which  is  especially  in  question  in 
the  present  discussion  is  that  which  appears 
when  already  acquired,  and  intelligent 
habits  are  decidedly  altered,  or  are  decidedly 
recombined,  in  such  fashion  as  to  bring  to 
pass  a  novel  readjustment  to  our  environ- 
ment." This  is  the  recognition  of  "critical 
points"  in  our  development.  Now,  our  men- 
tal life  and  growth  manifestly  require  both 
docility  and  initiative ;  each  must  have  its 
due  place  and  recognition.  And  this  funda- 
mental paradox  involves  many  lesser  ones. 
It  appears,  as  has  been  already  seen,  in  the 
intellectual  life  ;  it  appears  also  in  character, 
and  in  any  large  and  wise  management  of  life. 

Character^  in  the  large  sense,  requires  both 
self-assertion  and  self-surrender,  both  indi- 
viduality and  deference,  both  the  assertion 
of  a  law  for  oneself  and  the  reasonable  yield- 
ing to  others,  both  loyalty  to  conviction  and 
open-mindedness,  both  free  independence 
and  obedience.  "In  brief,"  says  Royce,  "the 
preservation  of  a  happy  balance  between  the 
imitative  functions  and  those  that  emphasize 
social  contrasts  and  oppositions  forms  the 
basis  for  every  higher  type  of  mental  activity. 
And   the   entire  process  of  conscious   educa- 


IHE     PARADOXES     OF     LIFE  35 

tion  involves  the  deliberate  appeal  to  the 
docility  of  these  tvv^o  types  of  social  instincts.^ 
For,  whatever  else  we  teach  to  a  social  being, 
we  teach  him  to  imitate ;  and  whatever  use 
we  teach  him  to  make  of  his  social  imitations 
in  his  relations  with  other  men,  we  are 
obliged  at  the  same  time  to  teach  him  to 
assert  himself,  in  some  sort  of  way,  in  con- 
trast with  his  fellows,  and  by  virtue  of  the 
arts   which   he    possesses." 

No  wonder  the  child  is  often  honestly 
perplexed,  and  not  a  little  dazed,  at  times,  to 
find  himself  blamed  for  disobedience,  where 
he  felt  hirnse^f:  really  standing  for  principle. 
Yet  it  is"  certain  that  without  a  good  large 
admixture  of  self-assertion  to  give  him  back- 
bone, the  child  will  be  mere  clay  under  the 
influence  of  his  surroundings  and  can  never 
form  character.^ 

No  wonder  the  grown  man,  too,  frequently 
mistakes.  Lecky  gives  a  particular  illustration 
of   this  paradox  in  character,  in  speaking  of 

^  I  cannot  help  thinking  that  it  would  have  been  more  logical  for 
Professor  Royce  to  have  regarded  these  two  contrasted  instincts  as 
illustrations  respectively  of  his  two  fundamental  contrasts  of  '^docility" 
and  "initiative";  and  I  have  here  so  treated  them.  After  the  great 
emphasis  of  his  fundamental  classification  of  mental  phenomena,  his 
actual  treatment  of  "initiative"  seems  needlessly  d  sappointing. 

*  Cf.  King,  The  Appeal  of  the  Child,  p.  48. 


36  RATIONAL    LIVING 

the  difficulties  of  "parliamentary  government 
w^orked  upon  party  lines."  "It  needs,"  he 
says,  "a  combination  of  independence  and 
discipline  which  is  not  common,  and  where 
it  does  not  exist  parliaments  speedily  de- 
generate either  into  an  assemblage  of  puppets 
in  the  hands  of  party  leaders  or  into  disinte- 
grated, demoralized,  insubordinate  groups."^ 
The  same  paradoxical  combination  of  quali- 
ties is  indicated  again  by  Lecky  as  necessary, 
when  he  says:  "One  of  the  worst  moral  evils 
that  grow  up  in  democratic  countries  is  the 
excessive  tendency  to  time-serving  and  popu- 
larity-hunting, and  the  danger  is  all  the 
greater  because  in  a  certain  sense  both  of 
these  things  are  a  necessity  and  even  a  duty. 
Their  moral  quality  depends  mainly  on  their 
motive."^  This  problem  is  thus  a  perpetual 
one.  The  solution  cannot  be  easy  for  child 
or  parent,  for  student  or  teacher,  for  citizen 
or  government.  Kindly,  patient  suggestion, 
which  is  reverent  of  the  individual  person, 
earnest  seeking  of  the  best  that  is  attainable 
in  the  circumstances,  and  honest  cooperation 
are  needed. 

So,  too,  a  similar  paradox  confronts  us  in 

^  The  Map  oj  Life,  p.  183. 
*  Op.  cit.,  p.  141. 


THE     PARADOXES    OF    LIFE  37 

the  general  conduct  of  our  lives.  In  Lecky's 
words,  "To  maintain  in  their  due  proportion 
in  our  nature  the  spirit  of  content  and  the 
desire  to  improve,  to  combine  a  realized 
appreciation  of  the  blessings  we  enjoy  with 
a  healthy  and  well-regulated  ambition,  is  no 
easy  thing,  but  it  is  the  problem  which  all 
who  aspire  to  a  perfect  life  should  set  before 
themselves."^ 

The  final  solution  of  this  fundamental 
paradox  of  self-surrender  and  self-assertion 
for  a  finite  being  would  apparently  be  reached 
only  when  one  had  found  a  self-surrender, 
which  Included  all  lesser  surrenders,  and 
was,  at  the  same  time,  the  completest  self- 
assertion —  a  yielding  which  should  be,  also, 
the  boldest  "claim  on  life."  Such  a  solution, 
Christ  evidently  believes  that  he  finds  in  his 
recurring  paradox  of  saving  the  life  by  losing 
it  —  denying  the  narrow,  merely  individual 
self,  like  the  grain  of  wheat  In  the  ground, 
to  rise  to  the  life  of  the  larger  self.  Every 
surrender  to  a  high  friendship  is,  as  Ritschl 
has  pointed  out,  "not  a  weakening  denial  of 
self,  but  a  strengthening  affirmation  of  self," 
for  love  itself  is  life,  the  largest  life.  But  in 
the  supreme   surrender  to  the  will   of  God, 

^  op,  cit.,  p.  28. 


38  RATIONAL    LIVING 

we  welcome  and  share  the  supreme  and  all' 
sufficing  life  ;  and  here,  as  Professor  Everett 
contended  against  Nietsche's  position,  one 
finds  in  truth  his  own  highest  and  strongest 
self-assertion.  "Religion,"  in  Biedermann's 
language,  "is  the  lifting  of  life  out  of  de- 
pendence on  its  circumstances  into  the  free- 
dom which  comes  from  absolute  dependence." 
But  a  paradox  is  not  solved  by  stating  it, 
or  even  by  indicating  the  ideal  combination. 
There  must  be  a  tracing  out  of  the  actual 
relations  involved,  a  discerning  of  the  mul- 
tiplied conditions  upon  which  the  solution 
depends.  Psychology  can  be  a  science  only 
so  far  as  it  is  actually  able  to  discover  these 
conditions.  And  the  emphasis  of  psychology 
on  the  complexity  and  paradox  of  life  means, 
therefore,  at  the  same  time,  emphasis  on 
conditions. 


CHAPTER  III 

THE  EMPHASIS    OF  PSYCHOLOGY   ON  CONDITIONS 

The  insistence  of  psychology  on  the  com- 
plexity and  paradox  of  life  means  emphasis  on 
conditions;  for  if  all  life  is  so  inter-related, 
and  so  puzzlingly  complex,  we  can  make 
progress  in  the  knowledge  and  in  the  living 
of  it,  only  in  so  far  as  we  regard  these  ac- 
tual relations  and  fulfil  these  matter-of-fact 
conditions.  Something  like  this  is  attempted 
by  Lecky  in  his  very  suggestive  book,  The 
Map  of  Life^  already  quoted.  Perhaps  the 
most  striking  thing  in  the  book  is  its  insis- 
tence upon  what  the  author  calls  "  the 
importance  of  compromise  in  practical  life." 
This  might,  perhaps,  better  be  called  the 
intelligent,  practical,  and  detailed  recognition 
of  the  complexity  oi  life;  for  no  real  compro- 
mise of  principle  is  anywhere  involved.  But 
Lecky's  main  thought  is  certainly  justified, 
and  is  an  immediate  inference  from  the 
conviction  of  the  complexity  of  life,  as  is 
indicated   by  his  own  statement :   ^'  Life  is   a 

(39) 


40  RATIONAL    LIVING 

scene  in  which  different  kinds  of  interest 
not  only  blend  but  also  modify  and  in  some 
degree  counterbalance  one  another,  and  it 
can  only  be  carried  on  by  constant  compro- 
mises in  which  the  lines  of  definition  are 
seldom  very  clearly  marked,  and  in  which 
even  the  highest  interest  must  not  altogether 
absorb  or  override  the  others."^  And  he 
discusses  with  great  care  and  insight  the 
necessity  of  such  "compromise"  in  war,  in 
the  law,  in  politics,  and  in  the  Church. 
Certainly  the  problem  of  the  practical 
solution  of  the  complexity  of  life  through 
recognition  of  the  precise  relations  and  con- 
ditions involved  cannot  be  escaped  by  any 
man  who  wishes  to  live  a  wise  and  righteous 
life.  There  must  be  both  the  knowledge 
and  the  fulfilment  of  precise  conditions. 

I.     THE  LESSONS  OF  NATURAL    SCIENCE 

This  is  the  lesson  of  the  marvelous  growth 
of  the  natural  sciences:  unwearied  study 
of  minute  details;  patient  search  for  the 
law  underlying  the  phenomena  investigated, 
and  for  the  exact  conditions  involved;  pre- 
cise and  persistent  fulfilment  of  these  condi- 

^Op.  ciL,  pp.  90,  91. 


THE     EMPHASIS    ON    CONDITIONS  41 

tions.  So  science  grows,  and  so  its  problems 
are  solved.  It  discerns  law,  and  hence 
possible  achievement.  That  is,  wc  accomplish 
nothing  except  through  the  forces  of  nature. 
We  can  use  these  only  so  far  as  we  see 
their  laws  and  fulfil  the  conditions  required; 
and  this  fulfilment  requires  time.  Law, 
conditions,  time  !  So  and  so  only  has  man's 
dominion  over  nature  come  about;  so  and 
so  only  can  dominion  over  one's  own  nature 
be  achieved,  and  life's  problem  solved. 

Because  the  problem  of  life  is  complex,  we 
must  attack  it  as  the  scientist  attacks  his 
problem,  with  a  definite  conviction  of  law 
and  with  consequent  hope.  Drummond's 
greatest  contribution  to  his  generation  lay  in 
this  insistence  upon  law  in  the  moral  and 
spiritual  world.  This  conviction  withdraws 
the  moral  and  spiritual  from  the  realm  of 
the  magical  and  brings  in  hope  of  real 
achievement.  So  believing,  we  may  set  the 
laws  of  the  world  and  of  the  mind  working 
for  us,  and  have  patience  with  ourselves 
and  with  others.  There  are  laws  in  the 
spiritual  world ;  we  can  find  them  out ;  we 
can  know  their  implied  conditions ;  these 
conditions  we  can  fulfil ;  and  we  can  so 
count    confidently   upon    results.    Otherwise, 


42  RATIONAL    LIVING 

the  perception  of  the  complexity  of  life 
could  bring  only  baffling  confusion.  There 
must  be  definite  conditions  of  growth,  of 
character,  of  happiness,  of  influence.  And  it 
is  psychology's  highest  task  to  instruct  us 
as  to  these  conditions  of  our  own  life. 


II.    THE   SIGNIFICANCE  OF   COMMON 
WORK   AND   DUTIES 

And  just  here  lie,  too,  for  practical  liv- 
ing, the  seriousness  and  value  of  common 
every-day  work  and  of  prosaic  duties,  as  the 
clearest-sighted  have  always  seen.  It  is  in 
these  that  the  actual  essential  conditions  come 
out  most  clearly.  It  is  interesting  to  notice 
that  the  very  language  of  our  most  wise  and 
useful  proverbs  shows  that  they  have  been 
wrought  out  in  the  realm  of  common  toil 
of  various  kinds.  We  shall  certainly  not 
solve  our  greater  and  more  distant  problems 
by  ignoring  those  smaller  and  more  imme- 
diate. Because  of  the  complex  intertwining 
of  things,  as  in  science,  so  in  life,  we  can 
never  safely  slight  small  matters.  Our  prin- 
ciples never  so  plainly  rule  as  when  they 
lead  us  to  care  in  their  slighter,  more 
delicate,  and  more  thoughtful  manifestations. 


THE     EMPHASIS    ON    CONDITIONS  43 

It  is  true  that  in  sight  of  the  infinite  goal, 
the  exercises  and  aims  and  discords  of  our 
daily  living  may  seem  petty  enough, —  "and 
yet,"  as  Lotze  says  —  and  I  know  no  nobler 
passage  in  all  his  writing  —  "and  yet  we  must 
continue  these  exercises,  devote  to  these 
contracted  aims  all  the  ardor  of  our  souls, 
painfully  feel  these  discords,  and  again  and 
again  renew  the  conflict  concerning  them ; 
our  life  would  not  be  ennobled  by  depre- 
ciation of  its  conditions,  and  of  the  stage 
which  it  oflfers  to  our  struggling  energy." 
We  get  control  of  the  principles  of  life  only 
by  some  real  working  of  them  out, —  only 
by  the  laboratory  method. 

Here  lies  the  significance  of  Lowell's 
"work  done  squarely  and  unwasted  days"; 
of  Gannett's  new  beatitude,  "Blessed  be 
drudgery";  of  the  Bishop  of  Exeter's  state- 
ment, that  "of  all  work  that  produces  re- 
sults, nine -tenths  must  be  drudgery."  And 
there  is  to  be,  too,  no  "blue-rose  melancholy," 
that  thinks  it  could  do  great  things  if  con- 
ditions were  altogether  otherwise  —  if  the 
roses  were  only  blue.  We  are  called  to  face 
the  exact  circumstances  in  which  we  are, 
and  faithfully  to  fulfil  the  conditions  there 
demanded. 


44  RATIONAL    LIVING 

III.    NO  MAGICAL   INHERITANCE 

In  the  best  things,  then,  there  can  be  no 
short-cuts,  no  sudden  leaps,  no  transcenden- 
tal flights,  no  magical  inheritance  in  vision. 
Long  periods  of  gradual  growth  precede  the 
harvest.  Steady  fulfilment  of  conditions — 
daily,  hourly,  detailed,  faithful  —  can  alone 
bring  great  hours  of  vision,  and  can  alone 
make  great  hours  of  vision  fruitful.  The 
vision  of  the  goal  is  inspiring,  but  it  must 
not  make  us  discontented  with  the  road 
thereto.  Dreaming  of  the  goal  is  not  attain- 
ment of  it,  nor  is  working  oneself  up  to 
belief  in  a  goal  already  attained.  It  is  far 
safer  for  us  to  say  with  one  of  the  world's 
best  fighters,  "I  count  not  myself  yet  to  have 
apprehended,"  than  to  sing  with  the  modern 
religionist,  "I've  reached  the  land  of  corn 
and  wine." 

Character  and  acquaintance — the  two  best 
things  in  the  gift  of  life,  and  the  very  essence 
of  religion — are  both  growths  and  active 
achievements,  never  a  magical  inheritance. 
They  are  not  given  outright,  and  God  him- 
self cannot  so  create  them.  They  can  only 
become  in  time  and  under  conditions;  but  this 
time  given  and  these  conditions  fulfilled,  you 


THE     EMPHASIS    ON    CONDITIONS  45 

can  count  on  results.    This  is  the  point  of  that 
remarkable  modern  stanza  of  E.  R.  Sill: 

"Forenoon,  and  afternoon,  and  night; — Forenoon, 
And  afternoon,  and  night;    Forenoon,  and  —  what? 
The  empty  song  repeats  itself.     No  more  ? 
Yea,  that  is  life ;    make  this  forenoon  sublime, 
This  afternoon  a  psalm,  this  night  a  prayer, 
And  time  is  conquered,  and  thy  crown  is  won." 


IV.    NO    CONDITIONS    IN   GENERAL 

But  —  and  we  need  to  heed  it — there  are 
no  conditions  in  general,  only  conditions  in 
particular.  We  develop  power  or  character 
not  by  a  general  striving,  not  by  resolving 
in  general,  but  only  by  definite,  concrete 
applications  in  definite  relations.  This  ignor- 
ing of  the  particular  is  one  of  the  great 
errors,  both  of  common  asceticism  and  of 
common  mysticism.  General  self-denial  and 
general  surrender  to  God  that  involve  no 
particulars  in  actual  life  are  fruitless  enough. 
On  the  contrary,  general  forms  or  types  of 
activity,  "a  given  'set'  of  the  brain  as  a 
whole,"  may  result  from  repeated  particular 
associated  acts.  So  Royce  says:  "It  is  known, 
for  instance,  that  'fickleness'  of  conduct,  irra- 
tional change  of^  plan  of  behavior,  can  itself 


46  RATIONAL     LIVING 

become  a  hopelessly  fixed  habit  in  a  given 
brain. "^ 

There  is  the  more  need  of  insistence 
upon  the  careful  pointing  out  of  the  precise 
particular  conditions  in  the  moral  and  spirit- 
ual life,  both  because  of  the  marked  scien- 
tific temper  of  our  times,  and  because  the 
natural  temperament  of  the  reformer  or  the 
religious  worker,  with  its  emphasis  upon 
ideals,  is  often  accompanied  by  theoretical 
vagueness  and  an  unwillingness  to  use  practi- 
cal means,  and  so  tends  to  make  him  neglect- 
ful of  accurate  study  of  the  precise  conditions 
for  the  attainment  of  these  ideals.  It  is  a 
great  thing  for  a  man  to  combine  vision  of 
the  ideal  with  the  scientific  method ;  this 
calls  for  the  best  in  two  opposing  tempera- 
ments—  the  sentimental  and  the  choleric. 

What  answer,  now,  has  psychology  to 
make  to  the  inquiry  for  the  exact  conditions 
on  which  growth  depends?  Our  second  great 
inference  from  psychology  should  suggest 
the  actual  conditions  —  bodily  and  mental; 
for  modern  psychology  emphasizes  the  unity 
of  man  —  the  unity  of  mind  and  body,  and 
the  unity  of  the  mind  itself. 

1  Outlines  of  Psychology,  p,  69  ;  cf.  also  James'  Psychology, 
Vol.  I,  p.  126. 


THE   UNITY  OF  MAN 

CHAPTER   IV 
THE   UNITY   OF  MIND  AND   BODY— INTRODUCTION 

It  is  the  unity  of  mind  and  body  which 
it  has  been  the  special  mission  of  physiologi- 
cal psychology  to  bring  out.  And  the  asser- 
tion of  such  unity  certainly  means,  to  begin 
with,  that,  for  the  present  world  at  least,  the 
intellectual  and  moral  and  spiritual  life  has 
its  bodily  conditions.  This  is  to  be  said 
neither  boastingly  nor  cynically.  It  is  to  be 
faced  as  a  simple  fact.  We  have  bodies, 
and  we  cannot  set  ourselves  free  from  them. 

I.   ASCETIC  TREATMENT  OF   BODILY   CONDITIONS 

The  long  sad  history  of  asceticism  in  all 
lands  shows  how  real  the  religious  life  has 
felt  this  connection  with  the  body  to  be,  and 
at  the  same  time  how  fiercely  it  has  resented 
it.  Men  have  remained,  in  this  question  of 
asceticism,  quite  too  largely  on  the  mythologi- 
cal plane,  without  any  clear  sense  of  a  real 
nature    and    unity    of  things.     The    scientific 

(47) 


48  RATIONAL     LIVING 

spirit,  which  demands  a  careful  study  of  de- 
tailed connections  and  conditions,  has  had  little 
enough  to  do  with  this  blind,  fierce  struggle; 
and,  in  consequence,  the  ascetic  has  every- 
where, on  the  one  hand,  failed  to  take  any 
sensible  account  of  the  effects  of  ordinary 
bodily  conditions;  and,  on  the  other  hand, 
paradoxically  enough,  has  exalted  the  effects 
of  certain  abnormal  bodily  conditions  into 
higher  spiritual  attainments/  These  histori- 
cal results  of  religious  asceticism  certainly 
cannot  be  held  to  commend  the  method  of 
ignoring  bodily  conditions.  The  plain  lesson 
of  modern  science  here  would  seem  to  be, 
that,  if  the  spirit  is  ever  to  master  the  body, 
it  must  know  its  laws  and  take  account  of 
its  conditions ;  these  are  the  very  instru- 
ments of  its  mastery.  So,  and  only  so,  has 
science  made  nature  serve  it. 

One  can  quite  understand  the  reluctance 
of  the  spiritual  life  to  admit  the  closeness  of 
its  connection  v^^ith  the  physical.  It  seems 
itself  to  be  lowered  thereby.  But  it  gets  no 
freedom  and  power  by  vehemently  denying 
the  fact,  and  ignoring  the  resulting  condi- 
tions. Rather,  its  superiority  must  be  shown, 
its  freedom  and  power  declared,  as  has  been 

1  Cf.  Royce,  Op.  cit.,  pp.  125,  126. 


THE  UNITY  OF  MIND  AND  BODY         4Q 

implied,  by  patient  study  of  the  laws  of  this 
body  and  of  its  connection  with  the  spirit, 
and  by  steady  fulfilment  of  the  conditions 
by  which  alone  mastery  can  come.  It  is  a 
false  and  abstract  spiritualism,  therefore,  that 
hesitates  clearly  to  recognize  or  to  affirm 
the  bodily  conditions  of  the  spiritual  life. 
Let  us  frankly  admit  that  much  of  the 
dissatisfaction  of  the  moral  and  spiritual  life 
results  from  a  wholly  unnecessary  and  sense- 
less disregard  of  bodily  conditions.  The 
emphasis  of  modern  psychology  upon  the 
close  connection  of  body  and  mind,  thus, 
compels  the  thoughtful  man  to  a  study  of 
the  bodily  conditions  of  true  living. 

II.    NOT  A    MATERIALISTIC   POSITION 

But,  from  the  religious  point  of  view,  it 
is  exactly  this  emphasis  of  modern  psychology 
and  of  allied  views  in  biology  which  seems 
to  many  to  make  impossible  any  independent 
or  enduring  life  of  the  spirit  at  all.  A  gen- 
uinely religious  view  of  the  world  seems  to 
them  precluded  by  the  known  facts  of  biology 
and  of  physiological  psychology.  The  diffi- 
culty is  a  very  real  one  to-day,  in  the  case 
of  hundreds  of  students  and  of  many  others. 


50  RATIONAL    LIVING 

If,  therefore,  we  leave  aside  for  the  present 
the  deeper  question  of  a  final  idealistic  view 
of  the  world,  we  shall  still  need  to  show  that 
this  bodily  connection  and  its  implied  condi- 
tions involve  no  denial  of  the  spiritual  life 
itself. 

The  precise  difficulty  felt  is  this:  the 
affirmation  of  bodily  conditions  for  the 
spiritual  life  seems  to  many,  even  of  those 
uninfluenced  by  modern  psychological  views, 
virtually  to  assert  that  the  material  facts  are 
primary,  the  spiritual  secondary ;  that  the 
body  is  the  real  independent  variable,  and 
that  psychical  states  are  in  truth  but  results 
of  bodily  or  brain  states,  and  hence,  that  at 
least  no  continued  life  of  the  spirit  could  be 
affirmed  after  the  destruction  of  the  brain. 

In  answer  to  the  difficulty,  one  might 
content  himself  with  simply  calling  attention 
to  the  fact  that  so  distinguished  a  psycholo- 
gist, for  example,  as  Professor  James,  with 
all  that  modern  biology  and  psychology  have 
to  say  distinctly  in  mind,  expressly  asserts 
that  not  only  is  there  no  scientific  reason  for 
denying  the  independent  reality  of  the  spirit 
now,  but  there  is  also  none  for  denying  the 
possibility  of  its  continued  existence  after  the 
body.    The  spiritual  life  is  certainly  not  pre- 


THE  UNITY  OF  MIND  AND  BODY         51 

eluded,  then,  by  modern  psychology \  And 
it  is  a  misconception  of  its  teachings  that 
asserts  this. 

But  the  difficulty  is  for  many  so  serious, 
that  it  is  probably  worth  while  to  see  for 
ourselves  just  where  the  misconception  lies. 
And,  fortunately,  some  present  general  admis- 
sions of  scientists  make  the  way  here  much 
shorter,  even  from  a  dualistic  point  of  view, 
than  it  could  have  been  some  years  ago.  It 
is  a  most  noteworthy  fact  that  materialism 
as  a  philosophical  theory  has  practically  van- 
ished even  from  the  ranks  of  natural  scien- 
tists; that  modern  science  expressly  denies 
that  it  is  materialistic.  It  has  been  driven  to 
take  this  position,  not  because  it  could  not 
show  how  brain  states  could  pass  into  psy- 
chical states,  for  it  cannot  be  said  to  under- 
stand the  final  how  anywhere;  but  becau:.e, 
to  affirm  that  brain  states  were  the  true 
causes  of  psychical  states,  would  deny  its 
fundamental  doctrine  of  the  conservation  of 
energy ^  It  would  be  to  affirm  that  what 
was  simply  a  mode  of  motion  in  the  brain 
disappeared  as  such  altogether,  and  reap- 
peared  as   something   not   at  all   a   mode   of 

^  See  James,  Human  Immortality,  pp.  7-30. 

*See  Paulsen,  Introduction  to  Philosophy,  pp.  74  ff. 


52  RATIONAL    LIVING 

motion.  This  would  involve  an  absolute 
break  in  the  physical  series,  an  annihilation 
of  motion,  and  a  virtual  creation  of  some- 
thing else.  A  completer  denial  of  the  con- 
servation of  energy  could  not  be  made.  The 
natural  scientist,  therefore,  has  quite  aban- 
doned, on  grounds  that  for  him  are  impera- 
tive, the  old  position  that  the  brain  states 
are  the  cause  of  psychical  states. 

From  the  present  standpoint  of  the  nat- 
ural scientist,  therefore,  we  may  not  only 
say  with  Professor  James,  ^  that  we  have  no 
need  to  assert  a  ^^ productive  function"  of  the 
brain  in  its  relation  to  the  psychical  states, 
since  we  may  equally  well  assume  a  "per- 
missive" or  "transmissive  function";  but  we 
may  say,  we  cannot  admit  the  possibility  of 
a  productive  function  of  the  brain,  since  it 
would  deny  the  conservation  of  energy.  To 
the  strict  logic  of  the  position  involved  in 
the  doctrine  of  the  conservation  of  energy, 
naturalism  must  be  held.  That  position  only 
allows  it  to  recognize  two  continuous  mutu- 
ally independent  series  —  the  one  physical, 
the  other  psychical — equally  justified  as  facts. 
And  this  necessary  admission  is  quite  suffi- 
cient   for   our    present    purpose,    which   was 

1  Human  Immortality,  p.  15. 


THE  UNITY  OF  MIND  AND  BODY         53 

simply  to  show  that  physiological  psychology 
does  not  preclude  the  conviction  of  a  real 
and  independent  spiritual  life. 

That  there  are  many  reasons  for  question- 
ing the  absolute  dualism  of  this  conception 
of  the  relation  of  the  physical  and  the 
psychical;  that  naturalism  is  itself  most 
inconsistent  in  carrying  out  its  position, 
since,  as  Ward  points  out,  "though  rejecting 
materialism"  it  "abandons  neither  the  ma- 
terialistic standpoint  nor  the  materialistic 
endeavor  to  colligate  the  facts  of  life,  mind 
and  history  with  a  mechanical  scheme";^  that 
the  whole  philosophy  underlying  it  is  hardly 
capable  of  any  final  defense; — all  this  need 
not  now  concern  us.  It  is  enough  for  the 
present  that  we  are  at  liberty  to  speak  in 
ordinary  terms  of  the  bodily  conditions  of 
the  spiritual  life,  without  any  logically  im- 
plied denial  of  the  independent  reality  and 
significance  of  that  spiritual  life. 

Returning,  then,  from  this  long  digression, 
let  us  notice  that  these  modern  investigations 
do  not  allow  us  to  forget  that  man  —  mind 
and  body  —  is  a  real  unity,  two-sided  and 
complex  enough  it  may  be,  yet  one  and  not 
two ;    they  leave  us    no  room    to    doubt   the 

^Naturalism  and  Agnosticism,  Vol.  I,  p.  viii. 


54  RATIONAL    LIVING 

mysterious  intimacy  of  the  connection  of  the 
physical  and  the  psychical.  It  is  more  than 
alliteration  when  HofTding^  insists  on  "the 
parallelism  and  proportionality,"  and  Sully' 
insists  on  "the  concomitance  and  covariation" 
of  the  nervous  and  mental  processes. 

1  Outlines  of  Psychology,  pp.  50  flf. 
*0p.  «/.,p.  4. 


I 


I* 

I 


i 


CHAPTER  V 

THE  UNirr  OF  MIND  AND  BODY—  THE  PSTCHOLOGICAL 
EVIDENCE 

I.    THE   LAW  OF   DIFFUSION 

One  of  the  clearest  proofs  of  this  intimate 
connection  of  the  psychical  with  the  physical 
—  not  in  the  case  of  the  brain  only,  but  in 
the  whole  body — is  contained  in  what  Bain 
has  called  the  law  of  diffusion,  and  which 
James  thus  states:  "Using  sweeping  terms, 
and  ignoring  exceptions,  we  might  say  that 
every  possible  feeling  produces  a  movement, 
and  that  movement  is  a  movement  of  the 
entire  organism,  and  of  each  and  all  its  parts. 
What  happens  patently  when  an  explosion 
or  a  flash  of  lightning  startles  us,  or  when 
we  are  tickled,  happens  latently  with  every 
sensation  we  receive."^  These  effects  of  feel- 
ing, even  of  the  simplest  kind,  on  the  body, 
have  been  experimentally  traced  in  the  modi- 
fication of  the  circulation  of  the  blood,  of 
respiration,    of     the     activity    of     the    sweat 

'  op.  cit..  Vol.  II,  p.  372. 

(55) 


56  RATIONAL    LIVING 

glands,  and  of  the  voluntary  muscles,  and 
less  accurately  in  movements  of  the  viscera. 
To  take  but  a  single  instance,  the  effect  on 
circulation:  every  least  mental  activity  — 
feeling  or  thought  —  affects  the  circulation 
of  the  blood.  This  is  particularly  striking  in 
the  brain. 

Mosso's  ingenious  experiments  here^  make 
the  connection  of  thought  and  circula- 
tion of  blood  in  the  brain  incontest- 
able. He  placed  his  subjects  upon  a  table 
so  carefully  balanced  that  the  slightest  in- 
crease of  weight  at  either  extremity  would 
turn  the  scale.  He  found  that  any  active 
thinking  by  the  subject,  like  the  solving  of  a  j 
problem,  would  at  once  cause  the  head  end 
of  the  table  to  go  down,  in  consequence  of 
the  influx  of  blood  to  the  head.  Sometimes 
the  subject  went  to  sleep  on  this  "scientific 
cradle,"  and  it  was  found  that  even  in  sleep 
so  slight  a  disturbance  as  the  moving  of  a 
chair  was  enough  to  cause  brain  activity 
sufficient  to  call  for  such  influx  of  blood  as 
to  make  the  head  end  of  the  table  go  down. 

Henle  has  shown,    also,   that   the   depress- 
ing emotions  increase  the  contraction  of  the 

1  Cf.,  e.  g.,  James,  Op.  cit.,  Vol.  I,  p.  98;  Pedagogical  Seminary, 
Vol.  II,  p.  12. 


EVIDENCES    FOR    UNITY    OF    MIND    AND    BODY        57 

smooth  unstriped  muscles  of  the  arteries, 
skin,  and  bronchial  tubes,  while  exciting 
emotions  make  them  relax,  and  so  believes 
himself  able  to  trace  even  the  *^^  natural 
history  of  the  sigh."^ 

11.   PSYCHICAL  EFFECTS    OF   BODILY  TRAINING 

The  influence  of  bodily  training  on  mind 
and  morals  is  another  indication  of  the  close 
relation  of  body  and  mind.  The  localiza- 
tion of  the  centers  of  motion  in  the  brain 
make  it  natural  to  expect  that  all  definitely 
directed  movements  will  directly  affect  the 
brain,  and  so  mental  development.  Du  Bois 
Reymond"  says  explicitly  that  ^'it  is  easy  to 
demonstrate  that  such  bodily  exercises  as 
gymnastics,  fencing,  swimming,  riding,  danc- 
ing and  skating  are  much  more  exercises  of 
the  central  nervous  system,  of  the  brain  and 
spinal  marrow"  than  of  the  muscles.  These 
theoretical  anticipations  are  abundantly  con- 
firmed by  the  facts.  The  success  of  the 
experiments  of  Dr.  Sequin  in  the  training 
of  idiots,  beginning  with  a  year's  training 
devoted  mainly  to  the  hand,  is  one  such  fact. 

*  James,  Psychology,  Vol.  II,  p.  445. 
^Popular  Science  Monthly,  Vol.  XXI,  p.  325. 


58  RATIONAL    LIVING 

Such  results  as  those  attained  in  the  physical 
training  department  of  the  New  York  State 
Reformatory,  at  Eimira,  furnish  further  evi- 
dence in  the  same  direction.  The  careful 
records  kept  of  the  men  in  this  prison,  in 
shop  work,  in  school  work,  and  in  conduct, 
make  these  experiments  peculiarly  valuable; 
and  these  records  show  incontestable  mental 
and  moral  gain  from  physical  training/  The 
Director  testified,  after  several  years  of 
direct  experiment  and  observation,  that 
"physical  education  inculcates  habits  of 
obedience,  mental  concentration,  and  applica- 
tion, and  forces  into  the  background  the 
former  man." 

III.    THE    CLOSE    CONNECTION   OF    THE    WILL 
AND   MUSCULAR   ACTIVITY 

The  ethical  life  with  its  center  in  the  will 
is  particularly  interested  in  the  close  connec- 
tion between  muscular  activity  and  the  will, 
which  modern   psychology  is   asserting. 

Sully  puts  the  principle  clearly  and  briefly: 
"On  the  one  side,"  he  says,  "attention  in- 
volves a  certain  amount  of  motor  innervation 
and    muscular   activity.     On   the   other   side, 

^  Cf.  entire  article,  Muscle  and  Mind,  F.  E.  White,  Popular 
Science  Monthly,  Vol.  XXXV,  pp.  377  ff. 


I 


EVIDENCES     FOR    UNITY    OF    MIND    AND     BODY         59 

all  voluntary  movement  involves  attention." 
"All  practice  in  doing  things,  then,  what- 
ever its  primary  object  may  be,  is,  to  some 
extent,  a  strengthening  of  volitional  power." 
So  Stanley  Hall  urges:  "Few  realize  .  ,  . 
how  impossible  healthful  energy  of  will  is 
without  strong  muscles  which  are  its  organ, 
or  how  endurance  and  self-control,  no  less 
than  great  achievement,  depend  on  muscle- 
habits."^  In  confirmation  of  this  principle,  it 
is  particularly  worth  noting  that  in  Dr.  Mac- 
laren's  inquiry  of  the  men  of  the  Cambridge 
and  Oxford  University  crews  of  many  years, 
it  was  found  that  the  benefits  from  their 
training,  which  the  men  made  most  of,  were 
"increase  of  stamina,  of  energy,  enterprise, 
and  executive  power,  and  of  fortitude  in 
endurance  of  trials,  privations,  and  disappoint- 
ments"—  all  distinctly  volitional  gains. 

Most  men  of  much  less  specialized  physical 
training,  who  have  given  the  matter  thought, 
can  similarly  bear  witness  to  an  influx  of 
volitional  energy  from  reasonable  muscular 
activity.  Definite  bodily  exercise  seems  often 
as  distinctly  volitional  as  physical  in  its  effects. 
There  is  a  close  connection  between  muscular 
tone    and   will-power,    which    the    man   who 

^Pedagogical  Seminary,  Vol.  II,  p.  75. 


6o  RATIONAL    LIVING 

seeks  complete  self-control  will  do  well  to 
heed.  James  carries  the  suggestion  a  step 
further,  when  he  says:  "And  that  blessed 
internal  peace  and  confidence,  that  acquies- 
centia  in  se  ipso,  as  Spinoza  used  to  call  it, 
that  wells  up  from  every  part  of  the  body 
of  a  muscularly  well-trained  human  being, 
and  soaks  the  indwelling  soul  of  him  with 
satisfaction,  is,  quite  apart  from  every  con- 
sideration of  its  mechanical  utility,  an  element 
of  spiritual  hygiene  of  supreme  significance."^ 

We  have  no  right  to  ignore  the  bodily 
conditions  of  a  rational  life  here  implied. 
The  greatly  increased  interest  on  all  sides 
in  bodily  exercise  has  a  plain  and  genuine 
contribution  to  make,  even  to  the  spiritual 
life.  And  the  passing  of  some  morbid  reli- 
gious questionings,  too,  has  in  this  fact,  I 
suspect,  a  practical  explanation.  I  have,  my- 
self, a  good  deal  of  faith  in  the  value  of  the 
coming  muscular  minister. 

The  increasingly  certain  outcome  of  the 
concentrated  observation  and  experiment  of 
the  last  thirty  years,  by  physiological  psychol- 
ogy in  this  field,  confirmed  by  most  varied 
practical  application,  is  that  all  real  training 
is  training,  whether  it  be  of  the  whole  body, 

^  Talks  on  Psychology  and  Lifers  Ideals,  p.  207. 


EVIDENCES    FOR    UNITY    OF    MIND    AND    BODY        6l 

manual,  industrial,  purely  mental,  or  moral ; 
that  man  is  so  far  one  that  real  training  any- 
where helps  training  everywhere,  and  con- 
sequently, also,  that  neglect  anywhere  means 
something  of  loss  everywhere. 

IV,    THE    PHYSICAL   BASIS   OF   HABIT 

But  nowhere  are  the  psychical  and  physi- 
cal so  completely  interwoven  as  in  the 
phenomena  of  habit.  The  mind's  initiative 
constantly  comes  in,  but  it  is  as  constantly 
seconded  by  the  nervous  system.  The  physio- 
logical basis  of  habit  consists  in  the  plasticity 
of  the  nerve  substance,  and  in  the  capacity 
of  nerve  substance  to  receive  and  retain 
impressions.  There  results  the  certainty  that 
the  nervous  system  will  act  again  more  easily 
in  those  ways  in  which  it  has  already  acted. 
The  nervous  system  behaves  here  with  dread- 
ful impartiality. 

Habits  man  must  have,  but  it  is  for  him 
to  choose  what  they  shall  be,  provided  he 
chooses  quickly.  The  time-limit  in  habits  is 
one  of  the  strong  evidences  of  the  close 
connection  of  body  and  mind.  It  is  a  start- 
ling fact  to  face,  that  a  man's  personal  habits 
are   largely   fixed   before   he   is   twenty ;    the 


62  RATIONAL     LIVING 

chief  lines  of  his  future  growth  and  acquain- 
tance before  he  is  twenty-five,  and  his  pro- 
fessional habits  before  he  is  thirty ;  yet  to 
something  like  this,  James  believes,  physio- 
logical psychology  points.^  Our  intellectual 
as  well  as  our  moral  day  of  grace  is  limited. 
It  is  of  no  use  to  rebel  at  the  facts,  it  is  folly 
unspeakable  to  ignore  them.  We  are  becom- 
ing bundles  of  habits.  With  every  young 
person  one  must,  therefore,  continually  urge  : 
Are  you  willing  to  retain  just  the  personal 
habits  you  have  now?  You  cannot  too  quickly 
change  them  if  you  wish  to  make  thorough 
work.  From  your  early  morning  toilet, 
through  the  care  of  your  clothing  and  the 
order  of  your  room,  table  manners,  breathing, 
tone  of  voice,  manner  of  talking,  pronunci- 
ation, gesture,  motion,  address,  study,  to  your 
very  way  of  sleeping  at  night  —  all  your  habits 
are  setting  like  plaster  of  Paris.  Do  you  wish 
them  to  set  as  they  are  ? 

But  this  insistence  upon  a  general  time- 
limit  in  habits  must  not  be  pressed  unduly. 
As  Royce  says,  "the  cortex  remains,  to  a 
remarkably  late  period  in  life,  persistently 
sensitive  to  a  great  variety  of  new  impressions, 
and    capable    of    forming    at   least   a   certain 

^  op.    Cit.t    pp.    121,   122. 


EVIDENCES    FOR    UNITY    OF    MIND    AND    BODY        63 

number  of  specialized  new  habits  —  such  as 
are  involved  whenever  we  learn  to  recognize 
and  name  a  new  acquaintance,  or  to  carry 
out  a  new  business  enterprise."^ 


V.     THE   EVIDENCE   OF   HYPNOTISM 

The  facts  concerning  hypnotism  may  be 
taken  as  a  final  evidence  of  the  exceeding 
closeness  of  the  relation  of  mind  and  body. 
The  marked  effect  of  the  hypnotic  sleep 
upon  memory,  and  the  well-nigh  incredible 
susceptibility  to  suggestion  which  it  produces, 
are  among  the  facts  which  show,  as  Baldwin 
says,  "an  intimacy  of  interaction  between 
mind  and  body,  to  which  current  psychology 
in  its  psycho-physical  theories  is  only  begin- 
ning to  do  justice."^ 

^Outlines  of  Psychology,  p.  66. 

*  Mental  Development,  Methods  and  Processes,  p.  165. 


CHAPTER   VI 

THE   UNITY   OF  MIND  AND   BODY  —  SUGGESTIONS 
FOR  LIVING 

What  suggestions,  now,  has  this  unity  of 
man — -mind  and  body — for  wise  living? 
This  mysterious  unity  of  man  is  a  reminder 
that  no  conditions  are  really  trivial,  that  no 
member  of  this  unity  can  suffer  alone,  and 
that  character  has  bodily  conditions  as  well 
as  psychical,  that  may  not  be  ignored. 
These  physical  conditions,  it  may  be 
repeated,  are  only  conditions,  not  causes; 
but  they  are  conditions. 

I.    THE    BODY   INFLUENCES   THE    MIND 

There  is  no  help  for  it.    However  it  may  Jj 
be   in    the    future,    one    is    not   yet   a   disem-    " 
bodied  spirit.    One  must  face  present   condi- 
tions.   What  does  this  mean? 

The  Need  of  Well -oxygenated  Blood.— -It 
means,  for  one  thing,  that  one  must  plan 
for  blood,  good  blood,  enough  blood,  and 
well-oxygenated  blood.    And  this  not  simply 

(64) 


SUGGESTIONS   FROM   UNITY  OF   MIND   AND   BODY       65 

for  physical  comfort,  but  for  the  sake  of 
rational  thinking  and  righteous  living.  The 
facts  already  given  as  to  the  law  of  dif- 
fusion should  prove  this.  One  of  the  first 
authorities  in  the  country  on  nervous  dis- 
eases asserts  that  many  forms  of  insanity  are 
not  due  to  organic  lesions  of  the  brain, 
but  are  probably  to  be  attributed  to  a 
"functional  change  in  the  brain  due  to  dis- 
ordered nutrition  or  circulation."^  Coming's 
experiments  in  artificially  hindering  the 
flovv^  of  blood  to  the  head  tend  to  the  same 
conclusion.^ 

Still  later  investigations  of  Mosso  on  the 
phenomena  of  fatigue,^  as  well  as  those  of 
LaGrange  on  the  physiology  of  bodily  exer- 
cise, emphasize  the  fact  that  the  quality  of 
the  blood  is  an  equally  necessary  condition 
of  normal  brain  activity.  "  The  substances 
produced  by  overworking  the  brain  and 
all  other  organs,"  Mosso  says  in  effect, 
"  are  drosses,"  the  great  part  of  which 
ought  to  be  burned  up  by  aid  of  the  oxy- 
gen of  the  blood.  "  Fatigue,  thus,  bodily 
and   mental,   is    a   sort   of    poisoning   by   the 

*  Starr,  Diseases  of  the  Mind,  p.  27. 

^  Cf.  Corning,  Brain  Exhaustion,  pp.  37  ff. 

^See  Pedagogical  Seminary,  Vol,  II,  pp.  267,  268. 

B 


66  RATIONAL    LIVING 

chemical  products  of  decomposition."  La- 
Grange/  lays  emphasis  on  the  fact  that  the 
great  gain  of  exercise  is  that  a  man  "lays  up 
a  provision  of  oxygen"  and  so  produces 
what  he  calls  "m.ore  living  blood."  And  the 
feeling  of  drowsiness  —  brain-workers  should 
note  —  often  means  need  of  oxygen  rather 
than   need   of    sleep. 

This  is  no  matter  of  mere  bodily  hygiene  ; 
it  is  quite  certain  to  become  a  question  of 
morals.  The  influence  of  brain-congestion  or 
anasmia  (and  only  in  less  degree  of  the  supply 
of  vitiated  blood  to  the  brain)  upon  the  tem- 
per and  disposition  is  immediate  and  marked. 
The  language  of  specialists  upon  this  point 
is  so  strong  that  it  would  seem  to  you  ex- 
travagant if  I  should  quote  it.  Thus  Ham- 
mond speaks  of  the  "whole  character  changed 
by  a  slight  attack  of  cerebral  congestion." 

This  means,  then,  that  a  man  has  no 
business  to  be  too  lazy  to  breathe,  and 
breathe  deeply,  or  to  exercise  sufficiently,  or 
to  fulfil  any  of  the  conditions  for  enough 
good  oxygenated  living  blood.  One  may 
well  be  reminded  that  the  authorities  agree 
that  feeling  is  no  safe  test  as  to  the  amount 
of   exercise    needed.    It   should    not    be    for- 

*  The  Physiology  of  Bodily  Exercise. 


SUGGESTIONS  FROM   UNITY  OF  MIND  AND   BODY       67 

gotten,  on  the  other  hand,  as  Corning  sug- 
gests,^ that  there  may  be  excessive  devel- 
opment and  use  of  the  muscular  system, 
especially  in  people  with  limited  digestive 
power;  but  the  temptation  of  brain-workers 
is,  doubtless,  not  generally  in  that  direction. 
Because  of  the  "close  analogy  between  the 
effects  of  mental  fatigue  and  those  of  mus- 
cular fatigue,"  LaGrange  speaks  of  "the 
dangers  of  mere  physical  exercise  without 
diminution  of  brain  work,"  and  expressly 
recommends  simple  exercises  as  best  for 
brain-workers.^  Temptations  enough  we  are 
certain  to  meet ;  we  have  no  right  needlessly 
to  increase  them.  Yet  blood  is  not  the  first 
and  chief  factor  in  attention,  Mosso  says, 
but  nerve  power. 

The  Need  of  Surplus  Nervous  Energy. 
Effects  of  Fatigue.^  —  Particularly  important, 
therefore,  in  the  bearing  on  both  intellec- 
tual and  moral  efficiency,  are  the  facts  as  to 
fatigue. 

The    Effect    of   Fatigue    on    Attention    and 

^  Brain  Exhaustion,  jip.  47,  188  ff, 

"^  Op  cii.,  pp.  351,  339   ff.,  379  ff. 

^  Cf.  on  the  whole,  Burnham,  School  Hygiene  ;  Dresslar,  Fatigue; 
and  Chamberlain  on  Mosso,  Pedagogical  Seminary,  Vol.  II,  pp.  9  ff., 
102  ff.,  267  ff.;  and,  for  many  illustrations,  Coe,  The  Spiritual  Life, 
pp.  71  ff. 


68  RATIONAL    LIVING 

Self-  Control. — The  facts  as  to  fatigue  are 
important,  for  one  reason,  because  scien- 
tific observation  seems  to  show  that  natural 
power  of  self-control  is  directly  proportioned 
to  the  amount  of  surplus  nervous  energy. 
"The  phenomena  of  inhibition  are  the 
stronger,"  says  Hoffding,  "the  fuller  the 
organism  is  of  life,  and  weaker  when  the 
organism  is  in  a  state  of  fatigue."  "In  this 
respect  the  condition  of  the  central  organ 
is  of  decisive  influence."^  All  self-control 
seems  to  involve  the  use  of  the  higher  brain 
centers  which  are  first  affected  by  fatigue  or 
any  abuse,  and  self-control  becomes  increas- 
ingly dilBcult  as  these  centers  are  overtasked. 
Brain-fag,  Beard  says,  brings  inability  to  bear 
responsibility,  defective  and  uncertain  will, 
lack  of  power  to  inhibit,  while  "perfect  Inhi- 
bition is  the  sign  of  perfect  health." 

But  power  of  self-control  lies  at  the  foun- 
dation of  all  intellectual  attainment  and  of 
any  possible  character.  Control  of  appetites 
and  passions,  even  the  lowest  degree  of  pru- 
dence, to  say  nothing  of  unselfish  subordina- 
tion of  one's  own  interests,  rests  directly  upon 
the  power  of  self-control.  There  can  be  no 
growth     in     practical    wisdom,    or    progress 

^  op.  cit.,  p.  44. 


SUGGESTIONS   FROM   UNITY  OF  MIND   AND   BODY       69 

toward  a  better  self — mental  or  moral — for 
one  who  cannot  hold  the  present  in  abey- 
ance to  the  future.  The  cardinal  difference 
between  the  sane  and  the  insane,  even,  lies 
in  self-control.  Dr.  Starr  says,  "its  deficiency 
is  vmiversally  regarded  as  evidence  of  mental 
instability."  It  is,  therefore,  of  no  small 
moral  interest  to  'determine  the  bodily 
conditions  of  self-control. 

In  a  general  way,  every  one  knows  from 
experience  that  when  he  is  tired  it  is  harder 
to  be  decent.  But  the  more  recent  investiga- 
tions of  physiological  psychologists  into  the 
phenomena  of  fatigue  give  needed  emphasis 
and  point  to  this  observation.  Psychologically, 
the  pov/er  of  self-control  consists  chiefly  in 
the  power  of  attention,  the  power  to  hold 
steadily  before  one  the  future  advantage,  the 
reasons  for  the  better  course,  the  broader 
wisdom,  in  spite  of  the  incitements  of  pres- 
ent impulse.  Now,  the  most  careful  observa- 
tions yet  made, — those  of  Mosso, — show  that 
"attention  is  the  chief  condition  of  mental 
fatigue,"  and  this  means  that  fatigue  directly 
hinders  the  power  of  attention  and  conse- 
quently the  power  of  self-control.  That  is, 
We  are  dealing  here  with  the  immediate  phys- 
ical   conditions   of   will-power.    What,    then, 


70  RATIONAL    LIVING 

are    the    facts    about     fatigue,    what    are    its 
conditions  and  signs? 

T)irect  Effect  of  Fatigue  on  Nerve  Con- 
ditions.— The  importance  of  surplus  nervous 
energy  is  emphasized  by  all  specialists  in  this 
field.  Dr.  Clouston  says,  "Exhaustion  of  ner- 
vous energy  always  lessens  the  inhibitory 
power"  and  speaks  of  "reserve  brain-power — 
that  most  valuable  of  all  brain  qualities." 
Dr.  J.  M.  Granville  says:  "The  part  which 
^a  stock  of  energy' plays  in  brain  work  can 
scarcely  be  exaggerated."^  Dr.  W.  H.  Burn- 
ham,  after  reviewing  all  the  recent  impor- 
tant investigations  of  this  kind  in  the  world, 
emphasizes  the  fact  that  in  the  nervous  sys- 
tem "only  a  limited  amount  of  energy  is 
available  at  any  moment";  and  "the  one 
essential  thing  in  economic  brain  action  is 
the  maintenance  of  the  proper  balance  be- 
tween the  storage  and  expenditure  of  energy." 
Fatigue  is  the  sign  that  the  reserve  stock  is 
being  drawn  upon,  that  one  has  begun  to 
consume  his  principal.  To  continue  work  in. 
spite  of  warnings  of  weariness  is  simply  to 
drug  the  watchman  of  the  treasury.  Direct 
experiment  in  electrical  stimulation  of  the 
nerve-cells  of  frogs  and  cats  shows  a  "remark- 

^  Popular  Science  Monthly,  Vol.  XX,  p,  104. 


SUGGESTIONS   FROM   UNITY  OF   MIND   AND   BODY        7 1 

able  shrinking  of  the  nerve-cells,  particularly 
of  the  nuclei."  After  five  hours'  continuous 
work,  the  cell  nucleus  is  only  half  its  normal 
size,  and  twenty-four  hours  of  rest  are  neces- 
sary for  complete  restoration  to  its  normal 
state.  But  half  the  amount  of  work,  it  is 
particularly  worth  noting,  does  not  require 
nearly  half  the  amount  of  time  for  recovery. 
In  experiments  by  Dr.  Hodge  on  nerve-cells 
of  animals,  Burnham  says  that  a  remarkable 
difference  was  found  between  the  condition 
of  the  cells  in  the  morning  and  at  night; 
"for  example,  in  the  brain-cells  of  honey- 
bees taken  at  night  the  nuclei  had  shrunken 
about  a  third."  "Of  course,"  he  adds,  "we 
cannot  apply  just  the  same  figures  to  the 
cells  of  the  human  brain;  but  we  must  sup- 
pose that  something  similar  occurs  during 
nervous  activity.  Mental  work  exhausts  the 
ner-^^e-cells  and  they  recover  slowly." 

The  Consequent  Effects  of  Fatigue  on  all 
Perceptions  and  Activities.  —  Direct  observa- 
tion upon  man  makes  practically  certain  the 
foregoing  conclusion  of  Dr.  Burnham's.  A 
postman,  for  example,  can  tell  far  more  ac- 
curately in  the  morning  than  at  night  the 
weight  of  a  letter.  Our  sense  perceptions  of 
all  kinds  are  far  acuter  in    the  morning.    It 


72  RATIONAL    LIVING 

is  literally  true  that  the  world  looks  brighter 
in  the  morning.  The  carefully  observed  re- 
sults of  fatigue  in  man  all  emphasize  the 
wisdom  of  prompt  heeding  of  the  warnings 
of  weariness,  and  the  necessity  of  alternating 
periods  of  work  and  rest  for  both  mental 
and  moral  health.  Mosso's  observations 
showed  that  "fatigue  causes  m.any  strange 
phenomena:  color-blindness,  involuntary 
movements,  hysterical  symptoms,  amorous- 
ness, hallucinations,  prolonged  after-images, 
and  almost  every  kind  of  subjective  and 
objective  symptoms,  suggesting  the  weaker 
parts  of  body  or  mind."  The  mental  symp- 
toms in  normal  fatigue,  as  noted  by  Dr. 
Cowles,  are  "loss  of  power  of  memory^;  sense 
of  perception  less  acute  ;  association  centers 
less  spontaneous,  and  therefore  slower^;  the 
vocabulary  diminishes ;  lowering  of  emotional 
tone ;  the  attention  unstable  and  flickering." 
These  are  the  symptoms  which  the  rational 
man  ought  to  note  as  indicating  that  he  is 
falling  below  his  best,  and  he  ought  to  plan 
to  get  back  as  promptly  as  possible  to  that 
best.    The  secret  of  the  finest  and  the  largest 

^  Corning  says  that  the  fluctuations  of  memory  may  be  taken  as  a 
kind  of  barometer  of  the  sanitary  condition  of  the  mind.  Brain  Ex- 
haustion, p.  71. 

=*  Cf.  Royce,  Op.  cit.,  p.  217. 


SUGGESTIONS   FROM   UNITY  OF   MIND   AND   BODY      73 

work  is  to  keep  persistently  at  one's  best. 
"Renewed  power  comes  after  rest  and  sleep." 
"But  when  the  process  of  restoration  is  con- 
tinuously incomplete,  pathological  fatigue 
or  neurasthenia  is  the  result." 

Fatigue  is,  therefore,  not  merely  physi- 
cally uncomfortable ;  it  is  intellectually  and 
morally  dangerous,  and  it  makes  temptations 
possible  that  have  cost  many  a  man  his  char- 
acter. The  record  of  Saturday  nights  in  this 
world  of  ours  would  make  tragic  reading. 
Germany  may  be  said  to  have  a  practically 
national  problem,  that  turns  on  the  use  of 
Saturday  night.  These  facts  help  one  to  see 
why  Mosso  should  insist  that  "the  work  done 
by  a  fatigued  muscle  (and  the  same  law 
seems  to  hold  for  brain  action)  injures  it  far 
more  than  the  same  work  under  normal  con- 
ditions"; for  '^half  of  a  given  quantity  of 
work  does  not  require  half  of  a  given  time 
for  rest."  "A  man's  efficiency,  then,  depends 
upon  his  habits  of  mental  thrift."  Men  evi- 
dently vary  considerably  in  the  promptness 
with  which  the  nerve  -  cells  recover  from 
fatigue.  Every  man  must  find  for  himself 
his  best  periods  of  work  and  rest;  but  hav- 
ing found  his  individual  law,  he  should 
remember    that    there    is   no    gain    but   only 


74  RATIONAL    LIVING 

loss  in  work  undertaken  contrary  to  that 
law. 

In  a  word,  self-control  lies  at  the  very 
basis  of  character,  and  of  all  achievement, 
intellectual  or  moral;  the  chief  psychical 
condition  of  self-control  is  power  of  atten- 
tion ;  attention  is  the  chief  factor  in  mental 
fatigue ;  the  chief  bodily  condition  of  power 
of  attention  is,  therefore,  surplus  nervous 
energy;  and  the  conditions  of  surplus  ner- 
vous energy  are  plain — food,  rest,  recreation, 
sleep,  and  especially  avoidance  of  every  spe- 
cies of  excess,  particularly  emotional  excess. 
And  these  conditions  are  largely  within  our 
control.  Even  sleep  is  largely  under  control 
of  the  will,  and  the  world's  best  workers 
know  this.  Bodily  conditions  rightly  observed 
can  mightily  help  both  intellectual  and  moral 
efficiency. 

The  religious  life,  least  of  all,  with  its 
belief  in  God  as  creator  of  both  body  and 
mind  and  expressing  himself  in  their  laws, 
can  ignore  these  facts.  While  recognizing 
clearly  that  these  are  not  all,  nor  the  most 
important  conditions,  it  will  still,  in  subor- 
dination to  the  higher  interests,  be  loyally 
obedient  to  these  lesser  laws.  The  spirit  of 
obedience  is  best  seen,   often,   in  fidelity   in 


SUGGESTIONS   FROM   UNITY   OF   MIND  AND   BODY       75 

the  littles.  How  dear  a  price,  in  the  spiritual 
life,  has  often  been  paid  for  the  ignoring 
of  this  first  plain  physical  condition  of  self- 
control  ! 

We  must  persistently  aim,  then,  at  surplus 
nervous  energy,  at  what  Emerson  calls  "/>/wj 
health."  And  in  no  calling  is  this  more  im- 
perative than  in  teaching,  especially  in  the 
teaching  of  little  children.  It  is  the  special 
prerogative  of  the  child  to  see  things  freshly. 
If  one  is  to  be  able  to  put  himself  at  the 
child's  point  of  view  and  see  for  him,  one 
requires,  above  all,  freshness  —  freshness  of 
body,  mind,  and  spirit.  He  must  be  neither 
strained  nor  fagged.  This  demands  plus 
health.  Dr.  Munger  makes  the  same  sug- 
gestion for  the  ministry  in  the  order  of  the 
words  in  the  felicitous  title  of  an  important 
address  to  theological  students,  ^^ Healthy  Vi- 
tality^  Inspiration. '^'^ 

"If  ye  know  these  things  happy  are  ye  if 
ye  do  them."  As  Dr.  Gulick  says  of  his  "Ten 
Minutes'  Exercise  for  Busy  Men":  "Exer- 
cise every  day.  If  you  don't  you  cannot  say 
that  it  is  a  failure,  you  are  the  failure."  Her- 
bert Spencer,  broken  down  with  nervous 
exhaustion,  made  his  farewell  address  to 
Americans  on  "The   Gospel  of   Recreation." 


76  RATIONAL    LIVING 

Sydenham,  author  of  a  valuable  treatise  on 
gout,  Lagrange  says,  "suffered  from  his  first 
attack  immediately  on  finishing  his  book." 
Knowing  the  truth,  unfortunately,  is  not 
doing  it. 

Americans,  especially,  need  Spencer's 
warnings,  since  no  nation  so  persistently 
disregards  these  facts.  For  neurasthenia  is 
a  peculiarly  American  disease ;  some  have 
even  ventured  to  call  it  Americanitis .  There 
are  natural  reasons  for  this  condition,  indeed, 
but  they  do  not  lessen  the  danger.  One 
factor — that  is  at  the  same  time  both  cause 
and  symptom  —  is  our  nervous  over-activity 
and  tendency  to  repeated  changes  of  occupa- 
tion. But  it  should  not  be  forgotten  that 
this  persistent  disregard  of  nervous  condi- 
tions both  makes  impossible  our  intellectual 
supremacy  as  a  nation  and  increases  enor- 
mously the  difficulties  of  our  moral  problems. 
The  greatest  things  cannot  be  possible  to  a 
people  that  is  living  on  its  nerves.  Intellec- 
tual supremacy  and  moral  leadership  for  a 
people  requires  long- continued  labor  on  the 
part  of  many  individuals.  There  is  incalcu- 
lable loss  in  the  constant  changing  of  intel- 
lectual leaders.  We  may  well  wonder  if  we 
are  not  attempting  to  live  at  a  pace  that  gives 


SUGGESTIONS   FROM   UNITY  OF  MIND  AND   BODY       77 

US  not  only  small  time  to  think,  but  threatens 
seriously  our  power  of  normal  feeling,  our 
power  to  work,  and  our  power  to  live 
righteously,  to  say  nothing  of  our  power 
greatly  to  lead  in  the  highest  things.  Let  us 
make  it  unmistakably  clear  to  ourselves  that 
no  fagged  man  can  be  at  his  best.  He  dooms 
himself  thereby  to  inferior  work,  inferior 
living,  and  inferior  influence.  If  we  are  to 
see  conditions  normally,  and  face  them  with 
hope  and  courage,  we  need  to  escape  fag. 

The  Need  of  Physical  Training. —  The 
psychical  effects  of  bodily  training,  already 
referred  to,  are  not  only  strong  evidence  of 
the  influence  of  bodily  conditions  on  mind 
and  character,  but  urge  most  decisively  the 
great  importance  of  such  training  for  the 
entire  higher  life  of  man.  The  effect  of 
physical  exercise  upon  organic  feelings  may 
be  referred  to  here  as  an  additional  illustra- 
tion of  this  importance  ;  for,  in  Sully's  words, 
"the  organic  feelings  have  a  far-reaching 
effect  on  the  higher  emotional  lifco"^  The 
almost  immediate  effect  of  deep  breathing 
in  helping  to  do  away  with  pathological  fears 
is  a  closely  related  phenomenon.^ 

^Op.  cit.,  p.  477. 

^Cf.  James,  Op.  cit.,  Vol.  II,  p.  459. 


78  RATIONAL    LIVING 

But  there  is  another  side  of  the  matter. 
The  close  connection  of  body  and  mind 
means  constant  mutual  interaction ;  not  only 
the  influence  of  the  body  on  mind,  but  also 
the  influence  of  mind  on  body. 

II.     THE    INFLUENCE   OF   MIND    ON   BODY 

Bodily  conditions,  correctly  considered, 
must  be  viewed  not  as  limitations,  but  as 
directions  for  the  accomplishment  of  our 
ends,  just  as  in  the  external  world,  we  can 
accomplish  our  ends  by  observing  nature's 
laws  and  fulfilling  the  implied  conditions. 
There  are  conditions,  but  they  may  be  made 
means  of  power.  I  have  nothing  to  say  here 
of  the  mysteries  of  Christian  Science  or 
metaphysical  healing,  or  occultism  in  any  of 
its  forms,  but  mean  to  keep  close  to  recog- 
nized scientific  facts.  For,  as  Professor  Jas- 
trow  says,  "the  legitimate  recognition  of  the 
importance  of  mental  conditions  in  health 
and  disease  is  one  of  the  results  of  the  union 
of  modern  psychology  and  modern  medicine. 
An  exaggerated  and  extravagant,  as  well 
as  pretentious  and  illogical  overstatement  and 
misstatement  of  this  principle,  may  properly 
be  considered  as  occult."^    The  facts  are,  that 

^Fact  and  Fable  in  Psychtlogy,  p.  26. 


SUGGESTIONS   FROM    UNITY   OF   MIND   AND    BODY       79 

self-control  is  made  vastly  easier  by  right 
bodily  conditions,  and  the  normal  way  to  self- 
control  is  through  fulfilment  of  those  con- 
ditions ;  but  the  mind  may  directly  affect  the 
body;  and  to  the  disciplined  will,  self-control 
is  possible  far  beyond  the  limits  of  natural 
physical  endurance.  Bodily  conditions  are  not 
omnipotent.  "One  of  the  most  seductive  and 
mischievous  of  errors,"  says  Dr.  Mortimer 
Granville,  "is  the  practice  of  giving  way  to 
inertia,  weakness,  and  depression.  .  .  . 
Those  who  desire  to  live  should  settle  this 
well  in  their  minds,  that  nerve  power  is  the 
force  of  life,  and  that  the  will  has  a  won- 
drously  strong  and  direct  influence  over 
the  body,  through  the  brain  and  nervous 
system."^ 

Power  of  Self-control  even  in  the  Insane. 
—  The  enormous  power  of  self-control  which 
even  the  insane  (whose  very  condition  is  one 
of  abnormal  lack  of  self-control)  are  able  at 
times  to  exert,  is  evidence  of  this  fact.  Thus, 
"a  patient,"  Hoffding  relates,  "once  strove 
for  twenty-seven  years  against  hallucinations, 
which  tempted  him  to  attack  others.  Even 
his  best  friends  suspected  nothing  until  the 
day  he  declared  himself  vanquished  and  took 

*  Quoted  by  Lccky,  Op.  cii.,  p.  i8. 


80  RATIONAL     LIVING 

refuge  in  a  lunatic  asylum."^  The  result 
showed,  of  course,  a  long-continued  and 
serious  diseased  condition;  but  the  fact  that 
that  condition  could  be  faced  and  mastered 
so  long,  shows  what  the  will  can  do  even  in 
seriously  abnormal  conditions. 

The  Will  in  'Determining  Conditions  of 
Health. —  Moreover,  the  very  beginning  of 
improved  nervous  conditions  often  lies  in  the 
will  itself,  and  in  the  will  alone.  Very  much 
can    be   accomplished    by   persistent  volition. 

In  Achieving  Rest.  —  "  Rest, "  Miss 
Brackett  justly  contends,  "cannot  be  pasted 
on  to  one."^  It  is  an  active  achievement. 
Rational  living  must  often  begin  with  a 
declaration  of  independence  —  a  persistent 
lessening  of  one's  pretensions  —  a  steadfast 
refusal  to  undertake  more  than  one  can  do 
without  strain.  For  many  of  us  there  can 
be  no  rational  living,  except  by  a  somewhat 
rigorous  practice  of  Dr.  Trumbull's  "duty 
of  refusing  to  do  good."  We  have  assumed 
too  many  duties  that  were  not  duties  for  us, 
and  are  attempting  to  do  too  many  things  at 
a  time.    The   burden  is  never  off,  the  strain 

^Outlines  of  Psychology,  p.  330.     Cf.  a   similar  case    in    James, 
Op.  cit..  Vol.  II,  p.  542, 

*  Tht  Technique  of  Rest,  p.  19. 


SUGGESTIONS   FROM   UNITY  OF   MIND  AND   BODY       8 1 

never  remitted.  We  must  resist  "the  devas- 
tator of  the  day."  I  am  coming  quite  to 
believe  in  the  almost  inspired  wisdom  of  an 
old  "second  reader"  saw  of  my  boyhood: 

"  One  thing  at  a  time  and  that  done  well 
Is  a  very  good  rule,  as  many  can  tell ; 
So  work  while  you  work,  and  play  while  you  play, 
For  that  is  the  way  to  be  cheerful  and  gay." 

The  poetry  was  not  sublime,  but  the  sense 
was  good.  The  persistent  practice  of  that 
principle  made  possible  the  enormous  amount 
of  work  accomplished  by  Kingsley  and  still 
accomplishing   by   Edward    Everett   Hale. 

In  Avoiding  Hurry. —  Haste  literally  makes 
waste.  Few  things  more  certainly  and 
thoroughly  muddle  the  brain  than  a  sense  of 
hurry.  One  can  work  rapidly  and  still  with 
complete  self-possession  and  without  hurry. 
But  the  peculiar  sense  of  being  hurried  has 
a  direct  physical  effect  that  may  often  be 
felt  in  the  brain,  and  is  distinctly  confusing. 
To  get  on  with  one's  work  at  all,  one  must 
often,  by  direct  effort  of  the  will,  resist 
hurrying,  recover  his  self-possession,  and 
drive  his  work,  instead  of  being  driven  by 
it.  There  is,  sometimes,  "possibility  of  great 
virtue  in  simply  standijig  still."  Work  done 
in  a  hurry  is  work  done  poorly  and  at   great 

F 


82  RATIONAL    LIVING 

loss.  Miss  Call  quotes  to  the  same  effect 
Ruskin's  "not  great  effort  but  great  power," 
which  recalls  Dr.  Bushnell's  saying  that,  if 
he  had  his  life  to  live  over,  he  would  "push 
less."  This  wearing  sense  of  hurry,  of  effort, 
of  push,  is  wholly  within  the  power  of  one's 
will,  and  needs  to  be  resisted  especially  by 
Americans. 

In  Meeting  the  Special  Conditions  of  Sur- 
plus Nervous  Knergy . —  Dr.  Coming's  rules  for 
those  of  scanty  mental  reserve  power  en- 
join avoidance  of  "  (i)  excessive  emotion, 
(2)  of  frantic  attempts  to  accomplish  in  one 
hour  work  appropriate  to  two,  (3)  of  every 
species  of  excess  which  experience  has  proved 
leads  to  general  constitutional  drain,  (4)  of 
attempting  to  do  two  things  at  one  and  the 
same  time,  (5)  of  petty  engagements  v/hich 
interfere  with  sleep."  But  every  one  of  these 
rules  calls  for  the  exercise  of  will  power. 
So  do  the  positive  conditions  of  surplus 
nervous  energy   already   discussed. 

In  Control  of  the  Emotions. —  No  single 
result  of  the  study  of  nervous  diseases  seems 
to  me  more  significant  than  that  nerve  spe- 
cialists generally  recognize,  as  one  of  the 
main  factors  in  nervous  health,  the  necessity 
of    the  proper   and    habitual    limitation   of    the 


SUGGESTIONS   FROM   UNITY  OF   MIND  AND   BODY       83 

emotions;  especially,  Richardson  says,  "those 
most  destructive  passions — anger,  hate,  and 
fear,"  and  worry  may  well  be  added  to  the 
list.  "Brain-work,"  Dr.  Granville  says,  "in 
the  midst  of  worry  is  carried  on  in  the  face 
of  ceaseless  peril."  And  Miss  Call  lays  spe- 
cial emphasis  on  the  "nervous  strain  from 
sham  emotions."^  It  is  a  specialist  on  brain 
exhaustion  who  writes,  "Habits  of  consistent 
intellectual  supervision  of  the  emotions  when 
once  formed  are  one  of  the  most  precious 
acquisitions  of  life."^  But  this  requires  habit- 
ual volitional  control  in  a  particularly  difficult 
field.  It  is  possible,  however,  and  not  only 
mental  health  but  bodily  health  requires  it. 
The  antithesis  of  this  volitional  self-control  is 
letting  oneself  go,  which  means  wreck — 
bodily  and  mental.  But  power  of  self-con- 
trol is  a  fact,  and  a  fact  which  physiological 
psychology  makes  as  clear  as  bodily  influence 
on  the  mind.  No  weakling  can  legitimately 
quote  physiological  psychology  in  his  defense. 
"  The  physiological  effect  of  faith "  is  to  be 
directly  connected  with  this  control  of  the 
emotions.    As  Dr.  George    E.  Gorham  says,' 

^  Poiver  Through  Repose,  pp.  57  ff. 
*  Corning,  Brain  Exhaustion,  p.  178. 
^The  Outlook,  Aug.  19,  1899. 


84  RATIONAL    LIVING 

^'the  functional  activities  of  the  unconscious 
life  are  not  under  control  of  the  will,  save 
as  the  emotions  are  affected  by  will."  "One 
cannot  will  the  heart  to  cease  or  increase  its 
regular  beat.  One  cannot  will  that  the  pro- 
cess of  digestion  shall  not  go  on."  "The  pro- 
cesses of  unconscious  life  are  under  control 
of  the  sympathetic  nervous  system,  and  most 
of  them  go  on  independent  of  thought  and 
unrecognized  by  it."  As  fear  especially  inter- 
feres with  the  normal  on-going  of  these  pro- 
cesses, so  a  faith  that  expels  fear  promotes 
them.  "Suppose,"  Dr.  Gorham  says,  "one 
comes  into  the  presence  of  a  sympathizing 
friend  who  excites  all  the  ennobling  emotions 
of  love,  trust,  hope,  and  courage.  None  of 
the  crippling  ef^fect  of  fear  is  in  the  body, 
but  the  whole  life  is  stimulated  by  the  faith 
and  trust  one  has  in  the  friend.  Thoughts 
come  quickly  and  freely.  The  body  is  at 
ease  and  its  functions  go  on  steadily  and 
well.  The  unconscious  processes  of  the  body 
are  only  doing  their  best  when  they  feel  the 
throb  of  a  great  faith,  a  great  hope,  love 
and  courage."  By  rational  control  of  the 
emotions,  thus,  through  putting  ourselves 
in  the  presence  of  the  great  objective  inter- 
ests and  personalities    that  naturally  call   out 


SUGGESTIONS    FROM    UNITY   OF    MIND   AND    BODY       85 

faith  and  hope  and  love,  we  may  profoundly 
afifect  even  the  unconscious  bodily  functions. 
This  means  that  control  of  the  emotions  must 
be  indirect  and  objective,  not  direct  and 
subjective. 

And  this  suggests,  w^hat  should  be  always 
in  mind,  that  control  of  the  body,  like  all 
self-control,  must  be  positive  in  its  method, 
not  negative — fear  and  worry,  for  example, 
expelled  by  bringing  in  faith.  This  emphasis 
upon  the  necessary  positive  character  of  self- 
control  is  most  important,  especially  in  the 
emotional  life,  and  will  be  more  fully  con- 
sidered   later. 


III.     MUTUAL   INFLUENCE    OF    BODY    AND    MIND- 
HABITS 

We  have  been  considering  phenomena, 
that  led  us  to  think  now  of  the  influence 
of  body  on  mind,  and  now  of  the  influence 
of  mind  on  body;  but  the  very  idea  of  the 
unity  of  man  in  mind  and  body  —  the  indis- 
soluble way  in  which  they  are  knit  up 
together  —  indicates  that  the  influence  in 
every  case  is,  at  least,  to  some  degree,  mutual. 
Each  constantly  affects  the  other.  And  the 
phenomena   of    habit   especially   enforce    this 


86  RATIONAL    LIVING 

view.  For,  manifest  as  the  physical  basis  of 
habit  is,  it  is  still  a  basis  which  it  is  quite 
possible  for  us  to  use  in  different  lines, 
according  to  the  direction  of  our  attention. 
And,  while  there  are  natural  time-limits  in 
the  formation  of  habits,  within  these  limits 
we  have  the  power  to  determine  what  our 
habits  shall  be.  The  nervous  system  simply 
comes  in  to  second  powerfully  whatever  we 
do,  and  to  make  it  more  certain  that  we 
shall  do  it  again.  The  mind  as  certainly 
af]fects  the  body  here,  as  the  body  the  mind. 
The  Significance  of  Habit  for  Mental  Life. — 
It  surely  is  not  necessary  to  dwell  at  length 
upon  the  significance  of  habit  for  the 
entire  intellectual,  moral,  and  spiritual  life  — 
its  enormous  hindrance  or  help  throughout. 
Professor  James  puts  the  heart  of  the  matter 
in  these  few  sentences:  "The  great  thing, 
then,  in  all  education,  is  to  make  our  ner- 
vous system  our  ally  instead  of  our  enemy. 
It  is  to  fund  and  capitalize  our  acquisi- 
tions, and  live  at  ease  upon  the  interest  of 
the  fund.  For  this  we  must  make  automatic 
and  habitual,  as  early  as  possible,  as  many 
useful  actions  as  we  can,  and  guard  against 
the  growing  into  ways  that  are  likely  to  be 
disadvantageous   to   us,   as   we    should   guard 


SUGGESTIONS   FROM    UNITY  OF   MIND   AND    BODY       87 

against  the  plague.  The  more  of  the  details 
of  our  daily  life  we  can  hand  over  to  the 
effortless  custody  of  automatism,  the  more 
our  higher  powers  of  mind  will  be  set  free 
for  their    own    proper   work."^ 

We  are  not  likely  to  give  too  earnest  heed 
to  the  law  of  habit,  with  its  physical  basis,  in 
facing  the  problem  of  living.  To  forget  these 
facts  of  habit  may  be  to  leave  our  whole 
higher  life  to  darkness  and  defeat.  Increas- 
ingly we  must  be  able  to  hand  over  to  habit 
earlier  and  lower  problems,  that  we  may  give 
ourselves  the  more  fully  to  the  deepening 
problems  of  the  spiritual  life.  And  that  this 
is  often  not  done  is  one  of  the  fruitful  causes 
of  small  attainment  in  the  higher  ranges  of 
our  being. 

James  also  brings  home  with  a  vividness 
that  cannot  be  escaped,  the  certainty  with 
which  habit  works  in  the  various  spheres  of 
our  life.  "Every  smallest  stroke  of  virtue  or 
of  vice  leaves  its  never  so  little  scar.  The 
drunken  Rip  Van  Winkle,  in  Jefferson's  play, 
excuses  himself  for  every  fresh  dereliction  by 
saying,  T  won't  count  this  time.'  Well!  he 
may  not  count  it,  and  a  kind  Heaven  may 
not  count  it;   but  it  is  being  counted  none 

^Psychology,  Vol.  I,  p.  122. 


88  RATIONAL    LIVING 

the  less.  Down  among  the  nerve-cells  and 
fibers  the  molecules  are  counting  it,  register- 
ing and  storing  it  up,  to  be  used  against  him 
when  the  next  temptation  comes.  Nothing 
we  ever  do  is,  in  strict  scientific  literalness, 
wiped  out.  Of  course  this  has  its  good  side  as 
well  as  its  bad  one.  As  we  become  perma- 
nent drunkards  by  so  many  separate  drinks, 
so  we  become  saints  in  the  moral,  authorities 
and  experts  in  the  practical  and  scientific 
spheres,  by  so  many  separate  acts  and  hours 
of  work.  Let  no  youth  have  any  anxiety 
about  the  upshot  of  his  education,  whatever 
the  line  of  it  may  be.  If  he  keep  faithfully 
busy  each  hour  of  the  working-day,  he  may 
safely  leave  the  final  result   to  itself."^ 

Opportunities  for  Will  Traifiing  in  For- 
mation of  Habits  in  Education. —  And  one  can 
hardly  help  emphasizing  here  the  great  op- 
portunities of  will  training,  in  the  formation 
of  good  habits,  that  his  educational  environ- 
ment affords  the  student.  The  person  who 
means  to  grow,  we  have  seen,  must,  as  early 
as  possible,  "make  automatic  and  habitual 
as  many  useful  habits  as  he  can."  And  the 
opportunity  for  this,  quite  apart  from  all  in- 
tellectual advantage,  is  enough  to  make  one's 

'O/).  cit..  Vol.   I,  p.  127. 


SUGGESTIONS   FROM    UNITY   OF    MIND   AND   BODY       89 

Student  days  priceless.  Let  the  college  stu- 
dent, for  example,  face  his  environment,  not 
to  chafe  under  it  or  against  it,  but  to  submit 
himself  loyally  to  its  discipline,  or  rather  to 
discipline  himself  under  it,  and  he  will  have 
no  reason  to  complain  of  the  result.  Here 
is  opportunity  —  but  only  opportunity — for 
training  to  those  conditions  of  surplus  ner- 
vous energy  that  guard  the  sources  of  one's 
best  mental  work,  to  promptness  in  meeting 
engagements  and  promptness  in  work,  to 
constancy  and  perseverance  in  work,  to 
that  "patience  that  is  almost  power,"  to 
superiority  to  moods  —  working  because  the 
work  is  to  be  done,  and  not  because  one 
feels  like  it,  to  regularity  and  system  in 
work,  to  self-control  and  self-denial,  to  abso- 
lute honesty  with  oneself  and  others  as  against 
the  fatal  facility  in  making  excuses,  to  power 
of  attention,  to  simple  will-power.  It  is  a 
great  opportunity  to  learn  steady  fidelity; 
but  it  is  only  an  opportunity.  Zeller  was  one 
of  the  greatest  historians  of  philosophy,  but 
Zeller  said  with  manifest  pride,  when  he  laid 
down  his  work  in  the  University  of  Berlin, 
that  for  eighty  semesters  he  had  not  omitted 
a  single  lecture. 

One    point     deserves    special    emphasis — • 


90  RATIONAL    LIVING 

the  great  danger  or  the  great  opportunity  for 
will  training,  in  the  multiplied  occasions  in 
one's  educational  life,  which  call  for  attention. 
The  habits  of  continuous  inattention  which 
some  students  form  in  recitation,  lecture,  and 
church  service  are  nothing  short  of  deadly. 
I  am  not  likely  to  speak  too  strongly  here. 
The  power  of  attention  is  the  very  center  of 
will.  Habits  of  continuous  inattention  and 
mind- wandering,  therefore,  mean  the  sap- 
ping of  the  sources  of  will-power.  It  is 
largely  one's  own  miserable  inattention  which 
makes  it  possible  for  him  to  speak  so 
contemptuously  of  what  he  hears ;  but  were 
all  he  says  true,  it  would  still  be  a  gigantic 
wrong  against  himself  to  use  these  occasions 
only  to  tear  himself  down.  There  are  times, 
no  doubt,  when  one's  bodily  presence  is 
required  on  an  occasion,  but  when  his  con- 
dition makes  it  unwise  to  attempt  close 
attention.  At  such  times,  one  should  guard 
himself  against  habits  of  inattention  by  de- 
liberately settling  it  with  himself  that  he  is 
not  now  to  attend,  and  makes  no  attempt 
to  do  so.  But  if  one  is  intending  to  attend, 
let   him    attend. 

James^    Maxims    on   Habit. —  For    the    rest, 
Professor    James    has   made    this   subject    of 


SUGGESTIONS   FROM   UNITY  OF   MIND   AND   BODY       QI 

habit  so  much  his  own  by  his  incomparable 
chapter  on  the  subject,  that  one  is  almost 
forced  to  quote  from  him  his  statement  of 
the  maxims  for  the  forming  of  new  habits  or 
the  breaking  of  old,  without  which  any  dis- 
cussion of  habit  for  practical  ends  would  be 
quite  incomplete. 

(i)  Launch  yourself  with  "as  strong  and 
decided  an  initiative  as  possible.  Accumulate 
all  the  possible  circumstances  which  shall 
reinforce  the  right  motives ;  put  yourself 
assiduously  in  conditions  that  encourage  the 
new  way;  make  engagements  incompatible 
with  the  old ;  take  a  public  pledge,  if  the 
case  allows ;  in  short,  envelope  your  resolu- 
tion with  every  aid  you  know."  To  similar 
import,  John  Foster,  in  his  famous  essays, 
On  'Decision  of  Character^  says:  "If  once  his 
judgment  is  really  decided,  let  him  commit 
himself  irretrievably,  by  doing  something 
which  shall  oblige  him  to  do  more,  which 
shall  lay  on  him  the  necessity  of  doing  all." 
This  is  really  to  cross  the  Rubicon,  to  burn 
behind  one  every  bridge  that  may  allow  any 
way  of  retreat  from  his  purpose,  and  to  burn 
his  boats  as  well. 

(2)  The  second  maxim  is:  "Never  suffer 
an   exception   to   occur   until   the    new  habit 


92  RATIONAL     LIVING 

is  securely  rooted  in  your  life.  Each  lapse 
is  like  the  letting  fall  of  a  ball  of  string  which 
one  is  carefully  winding  up ;  a  single  slip 
undoes  more  than  a  great  many  turns  will 
wind  again."  Nathan  Sheppard  gives  a  char- 
acteristic illustration  of  this  maxim,  when  he 
says  to  public  speakers:  "Dash  cold  water 
on  the  throat  every  morning  when  you  wash, 
for  365,  not  364,  mornings  of  the  year." 

(3)  "Seize  the  very  first  possible  oppor- 
tunity to  act  on  every  resolution  you  make, 
and  on  every  emotional  prompting  you  may 
experience  in  the  direction  of  the  habits  you 
aspire  to  gain."  It  is  action  alone  that  fixes 
the  habit.  "Let  the  expression,"  James  adds, 
"be  the  least  thing  in  the  world  —  speaking 
genially  to  one's  grandmother,  or  giving  up 
one's  seat  in  a  horse-car,  if  nothing  more 
heroic  offers  —  but  let  it  not  fail  to  take 
place." 

(4)  "Keep  the  faculty  of  effort  alive  in 
you  by  a  little  gratuitous  exercise  every  day. 
That  is,  be  systematically  ascetic  or  heroic 
in  little  unnecessary  points,  do  every  day  or 
two  something  for  no  other  reason  than  that 
you  would  rather  not  do  it,  so  that  when 
the  hour  of  dire  need  draws  nigh,  it  may 
find    you    not    unnerved    and    untrained    to 


SUGGESTIONS   FROM    UNITY  OF   MIND   AND    BODY       93 

Stand  the  test."  Daily  inure  yourself  "to 
habits  of  concentrated  attention,  energetic 
volition,  and  self  -  denial  in  unnecessary 
things."^ 

IV.  THE   TRUE    PLACE    OF    ASCETICISM 

This  last  maxim  of  James  may  sound,  to 
some  alert  Protestant,  too  Catholic,  too  much 
like  an  advocacy  of  the  doctrine  of  the  vir- 
tue of  self-sacrifice  for  its  own  sake,  of  judg- 
ing that  a  thing  is  "your  duty  because  you 
hate  it  so."  Yet  the  advice  is,  I  believe,  on 
the  v^hole,  so  sound  and  so  important,  that 
it  leads  one  to  ask.  What  is  the  truth  as  to 
asceticism?  The  religious  life,  especially,  has 
always  recognized  its  necessary  connection 
with  the  body,  in  its  attempt  to  solve  this 
question  of  asceticism.  For  this  reason,  too, 
therefore,  in  considering  the  bodily  condi- 
tions of  true  living,  one  can  hardly  shirk  a 
frank  facing  of  the  vexed  question,  What  is 
the  true  place  of  asceticism  ?  Has  it  a  right- 
ful place  at  all?  Has  the  Protestant  reaction 
from  the  Catholic  position  here  been  ex- 
treme? Has  the  "new  Puritanism"  lost  some- 
thing of  the  strength  of  the  old? 

^Psychology,  Vol.  I,  pp.  122-127. 


94  RATIONAL    LIVING 

The  ^ody  Not  Evil  Per  se. — In  the  first 
place,  we  can  probably  agree  that  asceticism 
is  not  to  be  defended  so  far  as  it  is  based 
upon  the  belief  that  matter  and  body  are  evil 
per  se,  and  opposed  to  the  life  of  the  spirit. 
We  are  not  Parsees  nor  Manichaeans.  Abuse 
of  the  body  can  help  no  virtue.  Disregarding 
nervous  conditions  which  are  a  part  of  God's 
own  ordainment  cannot  help  to  obedience  in 
other  things.  It  was  this  aspect  of  asceticism, 
that  seems  to  delight  in  limitation  for  its  own 
sake,  which  Goethe  so  abhorred  and  which 
he  so  constantly  fought.  The  Gospel  gives 
no  sanction  to  the  principle  that  the  good 
things  of  life  are  from  the  devil  rather  than 
from  God.  But  still  it  understands  clearly 
that  bodily  goods  are  subordinate  and  relative. 

Obviously,  the  demands  of  duty  in  a  given 
case  may  require  the  complete  subordination 
of  bodily  interests,  even  of  any  possible 
health;  but  in  no  case  is  this  to  be  recklessly 
assumed;  and  even  where  it  is  necessary, 
it  is  still  a  manifest  evil,  and  gives  no  excuse 
for  any  voluntary  abuse  of  the  body.  Any 
asceticism  that  lowers  bodily  vitality  is  just 
so  far  not  a  help  but  a  hindrance  to  self- 
control.  The  only  safe  asceticism  is  one  that 
makes  us  more,  not  less,  careful  of   the  con- 


SUGGESTIONS    FROM    UNITY   OF    MIND   AND    BODY       95 

ditions  of  the  highest  bodily  health.  As  Presi- 
dent Stanley  Hall  says,  "Even  will  training 
does  not  reach  its  end  till  it  leads  the  young 
up  to  taking  an  intelligent,  serious  and  life- 
long interest  in  their  own  physical  culture 
and  development."^  A  true  asceticism,  then, 
may  not  fight  the  body,  as  evil  per  se. 

Asceticism^  as  Negative ^  No  Full  Goal  of 
Life. — We  may,  perhaps,  also  agree,  in  the 
second  place,  that  asceticism  can  never  be 
the  price  of  any  real  salvation  or  that  salva- 
tion itself.  Necessarily  negative,  it  cannot 
furnish  in  itself  a  positive  goal  of  abundant 
life.  This  was  the  view  against  which  the 
Reformer^  warred,  and  which  Paul  charac- 
terized as  only  a  "show  of  wisdom."  Ascet- 
icism is  not  a  good  in  itself;  at  its  best  it 
is  good  only  as  means,  as  moral  gymnastic. 
No  rational  being  can  take  pleasure  in  pain  as 
such,  or  regard  asceticism  as  at  all  meeting 
the  requirements  of  virtue.  One  might  go 
the  whole  length  of  the  most  absolute  asceti- 
cism, and  not  yet  have  begun  to  love.  The 
preeminent  importance  of  self-control  to  the 
moral  life,  it  should  be  noted,  lies  not  in 
itself,  nor  in  the  mere  casting  off  of  the 
lower  goods,  but   in  its  making  possible  the 

^Pedagogical  Seminary,  Vol.  II,  p.  75. 


96  RATIONAL     LIVING 

positive  attainment  of  the  greater  goods,  for 
the  sake  of  which  the  lower  are  sacrificed. 
It  looks  to  growth,  to  the  constantly  enlarging 
life. 

Moreover,  It  should  not  be  forgotten  that, 
psychologically,  self-control  itself,  in  spite 
of  its  seemingly  negative  name,  is  always 
positive ;  though  the  vast  army  of  ascetics 
have  too  often  overlooked  this  fact,  and  so 
have  failed  the  more  disastrously.  We  con- 
quer the  tempting  thought  only  by  positively 
replacing  it  by  something  else.  No  man  has 
attained  real  freedom  from  the  domination 
of  evil  or  from  the  domination  of  the  lesser 
goods,  until  a  sense  of  the  great  realities  and 
values  has  taken  hold  upon  him.  The  deliv- 
erance which  the  Gospel  seeks  is  always  of 
this  positive  kind,  not  merely  negative.  Mere 
flight  from  the  world  is  cowardly,  narrow, 
selfish,  and  self -contradictory.  To  cut  one- 
self off  from  all  possible  relations  can  be  no 
good  training  to  a  love  that  involves  relations. 
Life  is  far  richer  and  more  complex  than  an 
ascetic  morality  can  ever  know.  We  are  to 
be  in  the  world,  though  not  of  the  world. 

Not  Two  Kinds  of  Christianity.  — Once  more, 
in  this  attempt  to  determine  the  true  place 
of    asceticism,    we    must    be    on    our    guard 


SUGGESTIONS    FROM    UNITY    OF    MIND   AND    BODY       97 

that  we  do  not  virtually  fall  back  into  the 
self -contradictory,  despairing  solution  of 
Catholicism,  to  which  Harnack  calls  atten- 
tion, which,  while  teaching  "that  it  is  only 
in  the  form  of  monasticism  that  true  Chris- 
tian life  finds  its  expression,"  still  "admits  a 
Mower'  kind  of  Christianity  without  ascet- 
icism as  'sufficient.'"^  There  is  a  subtle 
temptation  which  besets  us  here.  When  we 
speak  of  taking  on  what  we  call  unnecessary 
self-denials,  of  being  rigorous  with  ourselves 
in  "unnecessary"  things;  when  we  hunt  out 
for  ourselves  "unnecessary"  sacrifices,  not 
naturally  involved  in  the  highest  conception 
of  our  duty,  are  we  not  really  adopting  this 
old  idea  of  two  kinds  of  Christianity,  and 
creating  again  the  notion  of  works  of  supere- 
rogation, outside  of  what  could  be  rightly 
required  of  us,  and  upon  which,  therefore, 
we  may  justly  pride  ourselves  ?  The  ambi- 
guity of  that  word  "unnecessary,"  it  is  to  be 
feared,  makes  possible  here  a  quite  mistaken 
over-estimation  of  asceticism  and  so,  of  course, 
an  entire  misconception  of  its  true  place. 

In  what   sense   are    these    proposed    meas- 
ures  of   self  -  discipline    "unnecessary"?    Un- 
necessary,   truly,    in   the   sense   that    they  are 

^  IV hat  is  Christianity^  P-  79- 
G 


gS  RATIONAL    LIVING 

not  compelled  by  circumstances  or  by  the 
will  of  another;  unnecessary  also,  perhaps, 
in  the  sense  that  another,  looking  over  the 
situation,  would  not  feel  justified  in  laying 
these  things  upon  us  as  duties;  but  not  un- 
necessary in  the  sense  that  ave  did  not  fsel 
that,  for  the  sake  either  of  others  or  of  our 
own  later  higher  efficiency  and  victory,  we 
would  better  do  them.  We  believed  they 
had  a  real  and  valuable  contribution  to 
make,  either  to  ourselves  or  to  others,  and 
therefore  we  did  them.  If  this  was  not  true, 
and  no  one  was  to  gain  in  any  degree  by 
our  small  asceticisms,  if  they  had  positively 
no  contribution  to  make,  then  they  were  in 
truth  not  only  unnecessary,  but  utterly  value- 
less and  unreasonable,  without  justification 
of  any  kind,  except  on  the  doctrine  that  the 
painful  is  to  be  chosen  for  its  own  sake, 
that  a  thing  is  a  duty  simply  because  one 
hates  it  so.  From  either  point  of  view,  it 
must  be  seen  that  asceticism,  as  self -dis- 
cipline, is  no  reason  for  great  pride.  For, 
as  Pfleiderer  remarked  in  one  of  his  lectures, 
this  is  only  to  be  proud  of  one's  need  of 
discipline,  since  the  only  rational  justification 
of    asceticism    is    that   one    needs    it. 

In  truth,  in  ingeniously  hunting  out  these 


SUGGESTIONS  FROM   UNITY  OF  MIND  AND   BODY      99 

new,  supposedly  "unnecessary"  and  supere- 
rogatory spheres  of  "will -worship,"  have 
men  not  with  practical  uniformity  left  be- 
hind many  plain  common  duties?  They 
have  at  best  but  tithed  the  mint  and  anise 
and  caraway-seed,  and  have  left  undone  the 
weightier  matters  of  the  law,  justice,  and 
mercy,  and  faith.  ^  Are  we  sure  that  there 
are  any  such  "unnecessary"  valuable  exer- 
cises? And,  if  there  are,  are  not  most  of  us 
so  far  in  arrears  in  those  countless  oppor- 
tunities of  plainly  valuable  self-sacrifices  for 
others,  and  in  equally  plainly  needed  self- 
disciplines  for  ourselves,  that  we  may  dismiss 
the  question  as  purely  academic  —  never 
occurring    in   actual   life  ? 

The  True  Asceticism. — Abandoning,  then, 
all  idea  of  some  separate,  superior  virtue 
of  "unnecessary"  asceticism,  we  may  still 
feel  that  there  is  a  real  place,  and  a  psy- 
chological basis  and  need  for  a  personal, 
private,  humble,  unblinded,  sweet,  and  rea- 
sonable mental  and  moral  hygiene,  which  is 
at  the  same  time  quite  consistent  with  bodily 
hygiene,  and  which  Paul  advised,  when  he 
said,  "So  run  that  ye  may  obtain."  "All 
things  are  lawful  for  me ;   but  all  things  are 

iMatt.  23:23. 


lOO  RATIONAL     LIVING 


not  expedient.  All  things  are  lawful  for  me ; 
but  I  will  not  be  brought  under  the  power 
of  any."  Paul's  principle  is  that  final  victory 
requires  self-control,  all  along  the  way;  that 
those  conditions,  above  all,  must  be  fulfilled 
that  mean  winning  in  the  race.  And  that  will 
mean  holding  in  stern  abeyance  the  appe- 
tites and  passions,  and  the  giving  up  often 
of  many  pleasant  things.  The  relative  goods 
are  nowhere  to  be  allowed  to  jeopardize  the 
highest  goods. 

But  to  get  a  shattered  nervous  system, 
and  thin  and  vitiated  blood,  we  may  be  sure, 
is  no  "laying  aside  every  weight."  The  true 
aim  should  be  to  make  one's  body  the  best 
possible  instrument,  medium,  and  founda- 
tion for  the  spirit  —  to  seek  not  only  the 
"grace  of  a  blameless  body,"  but  the  grace 
of  a  positively  helpful  body.  And  this  is  no 
lackadaisical  purpose.  It  takes  far  less  will 
to  violate  the  conditions  of  health  in  the 
doing  of  worthy  work,  than  to  fulfil  them, 
as  the  number  of  manifestly  fagged  men 
in  places  of  responsibility  shows.  And  few 
things  are  a  severer  test  or  better  training 
of  the  will-power  of  a  man  than  fidelity  to  this 
trust  of  his  body.  To  be  truly  temperate 
and  fully  to  meet  the  requirements  of  health 


SUGGESTIONS   FROM    UNITY   OF   MIND   AND    BODY     lOI 

of  body  gives  an  ample  field  for  will  training 
—  an  ampler  field,  it  is  to  be  feared,  than 
most  of    as   are   cultivating. 

But  for  the  sake  of  body  and  mind  —  for 
the  very  existence  of  a  true  spiritual  life  — 
we  shall  never  be  set  free  from  fighting 
against  what  John  Rae  regards  as  the 
peculiar  temptation  of  our  time, —  "M^  passion 
for  material  comfort.^''  In  spite  of  grievous 
mistakes,  the  long  history  of  asceticism  has 
been  right  in  its  fundamental  protest, — that 
the  greatest  things  of  the  spirit  cannot  come 
to  the  ease -loving  and  self-indulgent,  and 
that  no  price  is  too  great  to  pay  for  the 
attainment  of  the  highest.  Bishop  Westcott's 
suggestion  in  his  posthumous  book,  that, 
though  we  were  not  to  return  to  a  confrater- 
nity of  monks,  we  might  well  look  to  con- 
fraternities of  families  pledged  to  plain  living 
and  high  thinking,  at  least  points  out  one 
of  the  gravest  dangers  of  our  time  for  a 
rigorous  spiritual  life.  And  asceticism  will 
always  find  its  true  place  in  the  steady  fight 
to  maintain  all  the  positive  bodily  conditions 
of  the  highest  spiritual  life,  and  rigorously 
to  subordinate  the  lower  goods  to  the  highest. 
That  much,  we  may  be  sure,  is  needed  all 
along  the  line. 


I02  RATIONAL    LIVING 

Our  study  of  the  unity  of  mind  and  body 
seems,  then,  to  make  it  clear  that,  for  the 
sake  of  the  higher  interests  themselves,  we 
may  not  neglect  the  body.  Browning's  words 
come  to  us,  thus,  not  as  a  skeptical  question, 
but  as  an  inspiring  challenge : 

"To  man,  propose  this  test — 
Thy  body  at  its  best, 
How  far  can  that  project  thy  soul  on  its  lone  way  ?  " 

But  psychology's  emphasis  on  the  unity 
of  man  means  not  only  the  unity  of  mind 
and  body,  but  also  the  special  unity  of  the 
mind  in  all  its  functions. 


CHAPTER   VII 

THE   UNITY  OF  THE   MIND  — THE   PSYCHOLOGICAL 
EVIDENCE 

Modern  psychologists  agree  in  emphasiz- 
ing the  unity  of  the  mind.  Insistence  on  the 
interdependence  of  all  the  phases  of  the  mind 
has  become,  indeed,  one  of  the  common- 
places of  the  schools,  and  is  one  of  the  chief 
points  of  difference  from  the  older  psychol- 
ogy.   Isolated  faculties  are  denied. 


I.     INTERDEPENDENCE    OF  ALL  INTELLECTUAL 
FUNCTIONS 

It  is  recognized  that  no  hard  and  fast 
lines  can  be  drawn  between  the  various  intel- 
lectual activities,  that  each  activity  involves 
the  germ  of  the  later  developing  activities, 
and  that  there  is  always  reciprocal  aid.  Judg- 
ment and  inference,  for  example,  are  seen  to 
be  already  active  in  the  simplest  perception. 
The  danger  of  all  exclusive  tendencies  is 
felt.    Starr  can  even  say:    "All  imperfect  edu- 

(103) 


104  RATIONAL     LIVING 

cational  methods  which  hinder  an  harmo- 
nious development  of  mental  traits  and  fail  to 
develop  character,  act  as  predisposing  causes 
to  insanity."  ^  Every  activity  must  have  its 
appropriate  development  for  the  sake  of  the 
whole.  Thus  Sully  says:  "An  eye  unculti- 
vated in  a  nice  detection  of  form  means  a 
limitation  of  all  after-knowledge.  Imagination 
will  be  hazy,  thought  loose  and  inaccurate 
where  the  preliminary  stage  of  perception 
has  been  hurried  over."  So,  too,  as  to  think- 
ing and  imagining,  "even  when  the  concepts 
have  been  properly  formed,  they  can  only  be 
kept  distinct,  and  consequently  accurate,  by 
going  back  again  and  again  to  the  concrete 
objects,  out  of  which  they  have,  in  a  manner, 
been  extracted."  "Thinking  is  not  the  same 
thing  as  imagining,  yet  it  is  based  on  it  and 
cannot   safely    be    divorced    from    it."" 

Royce  says  still  more  broadly:  "Sensory 
experience  plays  its  part,  and  its  essential  part, 
in  the  very  highest  of  our  spiritual  existence. 

^Diseases  of  the  Mind,  p.  46. 

^  Op.  cit.,  pp.  213,  372. 
These  two  inferences,  it  may  be  said  in  passing,  constitute  a 
considerable  part  of  the  psychological  basis  of  the  kindergarten.  In 
training  both  the  senses  and  the  imagination,  it  should  also  be  noticed, 
room  should  be  left  for  a  child's  own  imagination,  freedcm  and  ac- 
tivity. A  rag-baby,  thus,  may  be  better  than  a  full-fledged  French 
doll.— C/.   Sully,   Op.  cit.,  p.  215. 


EVIDENCE    FOR     UNITY    OF    MIND  105 

When  we  wish  to  cultivate  processes  of  ab- 
stract thinking,  our  devices  must,  therefore,  in- 
clude a  fitting  plan  for  the  cultivation  of  the 
senses,  and  must  not  seek  to  exclude  sense 
experience  as  such,  but  only  to  select  among 
sensory  experiences  those  that  will  prove  useful 
for  a  purpose."  "Whatever  be  the  best  form 
of  religious  training,  it  ought  deliberately  to 
make  use  of  a  proper  appeal  to  the  senses^  ^ 
Even  modern  logic  follows  here  the  trend  of 
psychology,  and  refuses  to  isolate  abstractly 
the  processes  of  conception,  judgment,  and 
inference,  or  even  the  processes  of  induction 
and  deduction ;  it  demands,  instead,  the  recog- 
nition of  the  organic  unity  and  continuity  of 
all  thinking.- 

Indeed,  modern  psychology  may  be  said 
to  affirm  that  the  intellect  has  but  one  funda- 
mental function — the  discernment  of  relation- 
ship. The  one  supreme  counsel  —  consider 
relations  —  is  counsel  to  fulfil  every  menta? 
function:  concentrated  attention,  assimilation, 
discrimination,  selection,  and  synthesis.  For 
concentrated  attention  requires  considering  an 
object  in  its  varied  aspects  and  relations ;  as- 
similation is  only  seeing  the  relations  of  like- 

^  op.  cit.,   pp.   128,   129. 

*  C/.  Bowne,   Theory  of  Thought  and  Knoivledge,  p.  iii,  e.  g. 


I06  RATIONAL    LIVING 

ness ;  discrimination,  those  of  difference; 
selection  is  choosing  out  the  more  significant 
relations ;  and  synthesis  is  but  putting  things 
in  their  relations  to  the  whole.  And  it  is  by 
exactly  theSi^  processes  that  we  come  to  the 
mastery  of  any  situation.  To  consider  a  thing 
in  all  its  relations,  it  should  be  noted,  more- 
over, carries  with  it  deliberation,  self-control, 
and  open- mindedness,  and  is  the  secret  of 
complete  mental  wakefulness.  This  is,  then, 
in  truth,  not  only  the  supreme  intellectual 
counsel,  but  counsel  for  all  living: — Consider 
relations.  Our  mistakes,  in  every  line,  are 
made  through  failing  to  preadjust  attention, 
thought,  or  words  to  the  coming  circum- 
stances, overlooking  some  vital  bearing  of  the 
matter  in  hand  —  forgetting  some  relation. 
What  a  recognition  is  this,  both  of  the  unity 
of  the  mind  itself,  and  of  its  inevitable  search 
for  unity. 


II.    INTERDEPENDENCE    OF   INTELLECT,    FEELING 
AND   WILL 

Modern  psychologists  are  also  agreed  on 
the  complete  interdependence  of  intellect, 
feeling,  and  will;  that  they  are,  in  fact,  never 
separated ;    that   pure    feeling,    pure   willing, 


EVIDENCE    FOR    UNITY    OF    MIND  107 

I 

and  pure  thinking  are  abstractions ;  that  the 
whole  mind  acts  in  each;  that  there  is,  for 
example,  no  thought  without  some  accom- 
panying feeling,  and  some  impulse  to  action. 
So  Royce  speaks  of  "the  persistent  stress  that 
I  lay  upon  the  unity  of  the  intellectual  and 
the  voluntary  processes,  which,  in  popular 
treatises,  are  too  often  sundered  and  treated 
as  if  one  of  them  could  go  on  without  the 
other. "^  This  insistence  cannot  legitimately 
be  made  to  mean  that  these  three  phases  of 
the  mind's  life  can  be  reduced  to  any  one 
of  the  three ;  they  cannot  be  said  in  strict 
necessary  logic  to  involve  one  another ;  but 
so  great  is  the  real  unity  of  the  mind  that,  as 
a  simple  matter  of  fact,  each  phase  is  always 
accompanied  by  some  activity  of  the  other 
phases.  The  whole  mind  always  acts."  This 
is  a  commonplace  of  modern  psychology,  but 
of  great  practical  significance.  Now,  this  in- 
sistence upon  unity  even  as  regards  these  three 
great  phases  of  the  mind,  logically  carries  with 
it,  and  with  even  greater  reason,  its  full  ad- 
mission elsewhere.  If  even  these  may  not  be 
separated,  there  is  still  less  legitimacy  in  an- 
alyzing a  single  activity  into  mere   elements. 

^  op.  cit.,  p.  viii. 

'  C/".  Lotzc,  The  Microcosmus,  Vol.  I,  pp.  178-180. 


I08  RATIONAL     LIVING 

III.    TREND    TOWARD   THE   DENIAL   OF   ABSTRACT 
ELEMENTS   IN    THE   MIND 

And  it  is  perhaps  not  too  much  to  say,  in 
spite  of  the  real  differences  between  schools 
of  psychology  upon  just  this  point,  that  the 
keynote  of  much  of  the  best  and  latest  work 
in  psychology  —  and  that  of  more  than  one 
school  —  has  been  the  revolt  against  the 
extreme  individualism — the  abstract  atomism 
—  which  began  with  Berkeley  and  Hume; 
and  a  demand  for  a  recognition  of  some- 
thing more  than  a  sum  of  elements  in  mental 
processes,  if  we  are  really  to  meet  the  actual 
concrete  facts  and  make  knowledge  possible 
at  all.^  This  consideration  will  occupy  us 
more  fully  later,  in  the  treatment  of  the 
fourth  great  inference  from  modern  psy- 
chology. 

IV.  THE    MIND'S   CONSTANT   SEARCH    FOR    UNITY 

In  most  significant  harmony  with  this 
trend  of  modern  psychology,  is  the  result 
of  Lotze's  painstaking  inquiry  in  the  Micro- 
cosmus,^  for   the    distinguishing    characteristic 

'  C/.  James,    Op.   cit.,   Vol.   I,    Chap.   IX;    Bowne,     Theory    of 
Thought  and  Knoivledge,  Part  I,  Chapters  II  and  III. 
2  Vol.  I,  Book  V. 


EVIDENCE     FOR     UNITY    OF    MIND  lOQ 

of  the  human  mind.  This  distinguishing 
endowment  he  finds  in  this  very  vision  of 
unity,  the  power  everywhere  to  see  a  whole, 
the  capacity  of  endless  progress  toward  the 
Infinite.  The  characteristic  of  human  sense- 
perception,  he  believes,  is  that  every  con- 
tent has  its  place  in  a  whole,  and  its  intrinsic 
excellence  as  a  part  of  that  whole ;  human 
language,  he  argues,  bears  the  impress  of  a 
universal  order;  human  intelligence  has  a 
clear  consciousness  of  one  universal  truth ; 
and  man  has,  besides,  an  ineradicable  sense 
of  duty  that  leads  to  a  yet  higher  unity  of 
the  entire  personal  world.  The  unity  of  the 
mind  itself  is  evidenced  here,  again,  by  its 
inevitable  recognition  of  unity  everywhere. 
James,  even  in  the  discussion  of  the  percep- 
tion of  space,  speaks  of  "an  ultimate  law  of 
our  consciousness,"  "that  we  simplify,  unify, 
and  identify  as  much  as  we  possibly  can." 
It  is  this  insatiable  thirst  of  the  mind  for 
unity,  which  shows  itself  at  its  highest  in 
the  scientific  and  in  the  philosophic  spirit, 
with  their  attempts  to  think  the  world 
through  into  unity.  This  deep  trend  of  the 
mind  may  surely  be  taken  as  legitimate 
evidence  of  its  own  unity.  And  this  unity 
will   come  out  still  more  clearly  in  the   con- 


no  RATIONAL     LIVING 

Crete   facts  involved  in  the  practical  sugges- 
tions w^hich  follow. 

In  general,  this  recognition  of  the  unity 
of  the  mind  implies  that  there  are  psychical 
as  well  as  physical  conditions  of  growth,  of 
character,  of  happiness,  and  of  influence. 
"There  is  a  mental,  just  as  much  as  a  bodily 
hygiene,"  HofTding  says.^ 

^Outlines  of  Psychology,  p.  33?, 


l^ 


CHAPTER  VIII 

rUE    UNITY   OF   THE   MIND—  SUGGESTIONS 
FOR   LIVING 

In  general,  the  unity  of  the  mind  impHes 
that  there  should  be  no  ignoring  of  the 
psychical  conditions  of  living;  but  rather, 
a  practical  recognition  of  the  interdepen- 
dence of  all  the  mental  functions.  It  means 
that  one  may  not  use  or  treat  his  mind  as 
made  up  of  independent  parts;  that  it  is  a 
vain  delusion  to  think  that  one  can  toy  with 
cynical  opinions,  and  leave  feeling  and  will 
still  humane  and  sympathetic;  that  he  can 
indulge  in  false  emotions,  and  keep  thought 
true  and  conduct  unflecked ;  that  he  can 
choose  against  reason,  and  not  give  his  inner 
creed  a  twist,  and  not  betray  his  deepest  feel- 
ing. It  means,  on  the  other  hand,  that  there 
can  be  no  earnest  and  persistent  search  for 
the  truth,  that  shall  not  blossom  in  truer  and 
more  delicate  feeling,  and  fruit  in  nobler 
action ;  that  to  have  done  once  for  all  with 
wrong    feeling    and    sham   emotions,    brings 

(ill) 


112  RATIONAL     LIVING 

more  genuine  insight  into  truth,  and  greater 
loyalty  to  it;  that  one  cannot  take  upon 
him  Hfe's  supreme  choices  and  not  feel 
more  deeply  and  think  more  clearly.  It 
means  that  defeat  in  one  sphere  tends  to 
defeat  in  all;  but  that  conquest  in  one 
helps  to  conquest  in  all.  It  means  that  we 
may  and  must  steadily  count  upon  the  unity 
of  the  mind. 

In  particular,  this  unity  of  the  mind  im- 
plies that  all  true  living  has  its  intellectual^ 
emotional^  and  volitional  conditions.  And  it  is 
no  idle  inquiry  to  ask  how  our  thinking  and 
feeling  and  choosing  may  affect  our  growth, 
whether  in  character,  in  happiness,  or  in 
influence.  The  most  earnest- minded  of  all 
generations  —  Socrates,  Paul,  Augustine, 
Luther, —  have  felt  that  life  was  a  battle,  its 
fiercest  and  most  critical  engagements  fought 
wholly  within,  with  no  observer  to  register 
the  victory  or  defeat  save  God  and  the  soul. 
With  calm  exterior,  perhaps  even  with  the 
every-day  commonplaces  on  his  lips,  one  may 
have  seemed  to  go  his  usual  way,  while  still 
within  him  there  was  waged  a  mortal  com- 
bat. What  is  this  inner  battlefield,  where 
man  fights  alone  ?  What  are  our  available 
forces,  what  our  most  dangerous  foes?    This 


SUGGESTIONS     FROM     UNITY    OF     MIND  II3 

is  the  meaning  of  a  careful  inquiry  into  the 
intellectual,  emotional,  and  volitional  condi- 
tions of  true  living. 

The  volitional  conditions  will  be  dealt  w^ith 
in  the  consideration  of  the  third  great  infer- 
ence from  psychology — the  central  impor- 
tance of  will  and  action.  The  present  chapter 
is  confined  to  the  treatment  of  some  of  the 
more  important  intellectual  and  emotional 
conditions  of  sane  and  righteous  living. 

I.    THE    INTELLECTUAL    CONDITIONS 

The  very  idea  of  intellectual  conditions  ot 
true  living  implies  that  the  habits  of  our 
thinking  may  either  help  or  hinder  us  in  our 
attainment  of  character  and  happiness  and 
influence.  And  the  relation  of  thinking  to 
living  may  be,  perhaps,  made  most  clear  by 
noting  both  the  ways  in  which  habits  of 
thought  may  help,  and  the  ways  in  which 
they  may  hinder  life. 

Intellectual  Helps. — The  conviction  of  the 
unity  of  the  mind  forces  us  to  believe 
that,  if  the  mind  is  rightly  trained  in  its  intel- 
lectual functions,  that  training  will  contribute 
to  the  whole  life.  Right  thinking  affects  the 
mind  in  most  subtle  and  deep-going  ways. 

H 


114  RATIONAL    LIVING  ^ 

In  the  first  place,  as  has  already  been 
pointed  out,  it  must  not  be  forgotten  that 
wise  conduct  of  life  is  greatly  furthered  by 
the  possession  of  a  considerable  circle  of  perz 
manenf  interests^  of  a  "store  of  stable  and 
wortliy  ends,"  that  enlarge  and  deepen  life, 
that  make  it  sane  and  wholesome,  that  give 
some  opportunity  for  freedom  of  choice,  that 
continually  serve  both  as  standards  of  value, 
and  as  effective  motives  to  action,  and  that  give 
a  man  secure  anchorage  in  time  of  storm. 
It  must  be  one  of  the  chief  aims  of  edu- 
cation to  give  us  such  permanent  interests. 
More  need  not  be  said  upon  this  here\ 

In  the  second  place,  it  must  be  mani- 
fest that  a  prime  condition  of  steady  growth 
into  one's  highest  life  is  knowledge  of  oneself — 
rational  taking  account  of  one's  own  tempera- 
ment and  tendencies  and  powers.  One  can 
hardly  handle  himself  to  best  advantage  if 
he  does  not  thoroughly  understand  himself, 
especially  his  prevailing  temperament.  There 
is  an  old  proverb  which  says  that  at  forty 
every  man  is  either  a  fool  or  a  physician. 
And  it  holds  for  the  mind  as  well  as  for 
the  body.  We  ought  to  know  ourselves  and 
the  conditions  of  our  best  living. 

^  Cf.  above,  pp.  9  ff . 


SUGGESTIONS    FROM    UNITY    OF    MIND  II5 

Is  one's  temperament  predominantly  intel- 
lectual, or  emotional,  or  volitional?  It  con- 
cerns him  to  know  and  *nto"~guard  himself 
accordingly.  The  predominantly  intellectual 
man  is  likely  to  find  it  almost  impossible  to 
fulfil  some  of  the  chief  conditions  of  sym- 
pathy, and  so  to  cut  himself  off  from  his  fel- 
lows, to  narrow  his  own  life,  to  jeopardize 
his  character,  and  to  limit  both  his  happiness 
and  his  influence.  The  predominantly  emo- 
tional man  is  likely  to  relapse  into  simple 
sentimentalism,  that  neither  thinks  clearly 
nor  puts  the  feeling  into  act;  while  the 
predominantly  volitional  man  may  attain 
merely  an  unreasoning,  unfeeling  obstinacy. 
"Woe  to  the  man,"  says  Murray,  "who  cul- 
tivates energy  of  will  without  the  guidance 
of  reason  or  without  the  amenity  of  genial 
sentiment."^  So,  too,  for  guidance  in  con- 
duct, one  needs  to  ask,  in  the  intellectual 
sphere,  Do  I  merely  see  things,  or  have  I 
learned  also  really  to  think  them  ?  As  to 
feeling,  is  it  the  physical  or  the  ideal  that 
most  appeals  to  me,  the  egoistic  or  the  sym- 
pathetic? Am  I  most  affected  by  pleasure 
or  by  pain?  As  to  will,  am  I  naturally  im- 
pulsive  or   resolute?     Is   expression    difficult 

^Education  of  IFill,  Educational  Revieiv,  Vol.  II,  pp.  57  ff. 


Il6  RATIONAL    LIVING 

or  easy  for  me?  If  difficult,  is  it  from  ex- 
cessive inhibition — the  danger  of  Northern 
peoples — or  from  defective  impulse?  Well- 
warranted  reserve  may  pass  into  practical 
inability  to  express  our  love  for  others  at  all. 
If  expression  is  for  me  easy,  is  it  from  w^eak 
inhibition — the  danger  of  Southern  peoples — 
or  from  strong  impulse?^  The  method  to  be 
pursued  in  remedying  the  defect  in  one's  char- 
acter, it  is  evident,  must  be  very  different  in 
the  different  cases.  And,  in  general,  do  I  react 
strongly  and  quickly,  or  strongly  and  slowly, 
weakly  and  quickly,  or  weakly  and  slowly  ? 

So,  again,  men  differ  greatly  in  their  nat- 
uraFestimate  of  themselves.  Some,  of  course, 
habitually  overestimate  themselves ;  others — 
perhaps,  on  the  whole,  quite  as  numerous 
a  class — are  as  habitually  self-depreciative. 
Both  need  to  take  account  of  their  tendency, 
if  they  are  to  live  wisely  and  happily.  Occa- 
sionally a  man  needs  soberly  and  deliberately 
to  form  the  habit  of  adding  fifty  per  cent  to 
his  natural  estimate  of  what  he  means  to  his 
friends.  He  is  continually  losing  power  and 
happiness  through  an  underestimate  of  his 
own  significance.  The  blunders  of  the  self- 
conceited   are  even  more  obvious. 

-C/.  James,  Op.  cit.,  Voi.  II,  pp.  537  ff,  546  ff. 


SUGGESTIONS    FROM    UNITY    OF    MIND  II 7 

Dangers  and  temptations  plainly  vary  with 
temperament.  As  a  single  example,  it  is  easy 
to  see  that  it  is  well  for  a  man  to  take 
account  of  his  temperament  as  to  the  kind 
of  memories  ht  has;  for  these  come  in  directly 
to  affect  decision.  It  is  a  psychological  fact 
that  some  men  have  good  memories  for  joys 
and  successes,  and  poor  memories  for  in- 
juries and  sorrows  and  difficulties.  Of  others, 
the  reverse  is  true.  The  former  are  apt  to 
be  rash  in  their  decisions  and  undertakings ; 
the  latter  to  find  both  positive  decision  and 
undertaking  difficult.  Note,  for  example,  the 
bearing  of  these  kinds  of  memory  upon  the 
duty  of  forgiveness.  Some  of  us  simply  can- 
not recall  after  a  time  how  mean  a  man  has 
been  to  us ;  we  cannot  reproduce  with  any 
vividness  the  original  situation ;  it  is  com- 
paratively easy  for  such  to  forgive.  Others 
can  bring  back  the  whole  scene  in  detail, 
and  powerfully  feel  it  again ;  for  such, 
forgiveness  is  much  harder. 

It  should  need  no  argument  to  prove,  in 
particular,  that  this  forgetting  of  differences 
of  temperament  is  a  most  fruitful  cause  of 
the  seeming  unreality  of  the  spiritual  life. 
Men  question  their  own  spiritual  insights  and 
experiences   because    these    do    not   come   to 


Il8  RATIONAL     LIVING 

them  in  the  same  way  as  those  of  others  of 
quite  different  temperaments.  Both  need  to 
take  account  of  their  temperaments,  when 
decisions  are  to  be  made. 

More  definitely,  the  intellect  may  help 
character,  by  giving  a  clear  discernment  of 
what  moral  progress  is.  Even  this,  however,  is 
plainly  not  a  purely  intellectual  problem,  but 
a  part  of  our  moral  conflict  itself.  But  the 
intellect  may  contribute  much.  Even  if  it 
were  true  that  a  man's  purpose  at  a  given 
time  were  wholly  right,  yet  progress  would 
be  possible  to  him.  Clear  thinking  may  show 
that  progress  is  possible  in  steadiness  of 
purpose,  in  the  multiplication  of  motives 
to  insure  the  persistent  purpose,  and  in 
broader,  deeper,  more  skilful  and  delicate 
application  of  the  purpose.  In  the  first  place, 
growing  insight  should  place  before  a  man 
so  clearly  and  completely  the  different  rela- 
tions of  his  purpose  to  the  well-being  of 
himself  and  of  others,  as  to  put  almost 
beyond  desire  any  opposite  course ;  and 
the  flickering,  vacillating  will  becomes 
thus  replaced  by  unshaken  steadiness  of 
purpose. 

Progress  is  also  possible  in  the  broader  appli- 
cation of  the  right  purpose.    Nearly  all  men 


SUGGESTIONS    FROM     UNITY    OF    MIND  II Q 

live  in  more  or  less  constant  blindness  to 
certain  spheres  of  moral  conduct.  In  certain 
relations,  the  moral  problem  is  never  raised. 
The  knights  of  the  Middle  Ages,  for  example, 
were,  many  of  them,  men  of  genuine  and 
chivalrous  Christian  purpose,  yet  few  recog- 
nized any  large  duty  to  their  poorest  depen- 
dents. One  awakes  at  times  with  a  kind  of 
amazement  to  the  recognition  of  a  duty  that 
has  long  stared  him  squarely  in  the  face,  but 
which  nevertheless  for  him  has  not  previously 
seemed  to  exist.  Much  of  our  moral  growth 
consists  in  the  broadening  application  of  well- 
recognized  principles,  in  the  widening  of 
the  field  of  obligation.  The  awakening  of 
our  own  generation  to  a  new  social  con- 
sciousness is  a  marked  example  of  such 
broadening  of  the  moral  life. 

But  great  progress  is  possible  as  well  in 
the  deeper  application  of  the  right  purpose. 
Here  belongs  the  growing  discernment  of 
the  rich  complexity  and  significance  of  life, 
of  the  destiny  of  man,  of  the  worth  of 
personality  and  of  personal  relations  —  a  dis- 
cernment that  makes  a  man's  previous  aims 
and  achievements  seem  shallow  and  imperfect 
enough.  Life  means  so  much  more  to  him, 
that   his   sense   of    obligation    has    deepened 


I20  RATIONAL     LIVING 

proportionately.  He  cannot  treat  lightly  his 
own  life,  or  the  life  of  another. 

And  to  come  to  such  a  sense  of  the 
sacredness  of  life's  calling,  is  at  the  same 
time  to  see  the  possible  progress  in  7nore 
skilful  and  delicate  application  of  the  right 
purpose.  Real  tact  implies  moral  advance- 
ment. One  longs  for  an  imagination  more 
creative  and  profound,  to  present  to  himself 
adequately  the  circumstances  of  the  other 
man ;  a  judgment  more  delicately  sensitive 
to  discern  the  precise  forms  in  which  his 
purpose  should  now  be  embodied.  Such 
judgment  and  such  imagination  are  no 
happy  inheritance ;  they  come  only  from 
long  moral  experience  and  discipline.  It  is 
this  skilful  and  delicate  application  which 
makes  the  highest  attainment  in  morals  — 
real  beauty  of  character  —  the  ideal  embodi- 
ment of  one's  ideal  —  possible. 

But  the  most  direct  intcllect'aal  help  to 
a  wise  conduct  of  life  comes  from  clearness 
and  definiteness  in  memory^  imagination,  and 
thinking.  To  remember  with  distinctness  the 
entire  and  exact  consequences  of  previous 
experiences,  to  be  able  to  set  before  oneself 
with  vivid  and  detailed  imagination  even 
the    remote    results   of   the    action    now  con- 


SUGGESTIONS    FROM     UNITY    OF     MIND  121 

templated  —  this  is  to  be  able  to  call  to  one's 
aid  the  strongest  motives  to  righteousness. 
Clear  and  definite  thinking,  moreover,  moves 
directly  and  unhesitatingly  toward  its  goal, 
and  for  that  very  reason  seems  to  be  a  dis- 
tinct help  to  decisive  action.  For  all  pur- 
poseful action  involves  the  use  of  definite 
means  to  definite  ends.  Definiteness  in 
thinking,  thus,  seems  to  be  directly  connected 
with  decision  in  action,  and  vagueness  of 
thinking  with  Indecision  and  weakness. 

It  is  therefore  of  great  moral  value  to  form 
a  habit  of  requiring  of  oneself  clearness  and 
definiteness  with  reference  to  all  with  which 
one  means  seriously  to  deal  —  clearness  and 
definiteness  in  the  original  impressions,  in 
memories,  in  insights,  in  purposes,  in  state- 
ments. There<nust  be  no  suffering  of  oneself 
in  vague  reasonings,  vague  bargains,  vague 
promises,  and  vague  conclusions.  When  de- 
cision and  definiteness  are  at  all  possible, 
there  should  be  a  complete  avoidance  of  all 
vagueness  and  procrastination,  and  a  firm 
purpose  to  look  the  facts  fully  in  the  face. 
Intellectual  vagueness  is  a  habit  easy  to 
form,  and  bodily  weariness  greatly  favors  it; 
but  it  is  a  habit  distinctly  Inimical  to  the 
acquirement   of   will-power   and   of   practical 


122  RATIONAL    LIVING 

power  to  act.  It  can  be  conquered  only  by 
a  positive  cultivation  of  the  opposite  habit  of 
clearness  and  definiteness  in  the  entire 
intellectual  life. 

Lotze  shows  some  of  the  broader  implica- 
tions of  this  principle  in  a  suggestive  passage, 
that  is  well  worth  quoting  at  length:  "To 
a  character  of  thorough  moral  development 
every  entangled  complication  of  circum- 
stances, every  uncertainty  regarding  claims 
which  it  is  entitled  to  make  or  called  upon 
to  satisfy,  every  doubt  about  its  relation  to 
others,  is  as  odious  as  bodily  impurity.  We 
need  only  compare  with  this  the  prevailing 
inclinations  of  the  lower  classes,  in  order  to 
see  those  moral  deficiencies  which  it  is  so 
hard  for  imperfect  civilization  to  avoid ;  the 
difficulty  of  extracting  from  them  a  definite, 
decided  promise,  their  constant  disposition 
to  leave  everything  they  can  in  a  state  of 
fluctuating  uncertain  indecision,  their  in- 
accessibility to  the  notion  that  one's  word 
once  given  is  of  binding  obligation,  and  —  in 
wider  circles  —  the  propensity  to  cling  to 
doubtful  and  untenable  relations,  the  hope 
that  if  one  never  takes  a  decided  step  one 
will  be  able  in  the  hurly-burly  of  events  to 
snatch  some  advantage,  of  which  one  has   at 


SUGGESTIONS    FROM    UNITY    OF    MIND  123 

present  no  clear  notion  —  in  short,  inex- 
haustible patience  with  all  sorts  of  confusion, 
and  a  delight  in  wriggling  on,  with  the 
help  of  procrastination,  waiting  about,  half- 
admissions  and  retractions,  and  general 
uncertainty,  through  the  course  of  events 
which  to  men  thus  inclined  seems  itself 
equally  uncertain."^  "Among  the  more  in- 
telligent upper  classes  the  same  deficiency 
recurs,  but  under  other  forms,  or  under  the 
same  forms,  but  in  different  connections; 
among  them,  as  among  those  whose  condi- 
tions of  life  are  less  favored,  the  noble  spirits 
are  but  few,  but  there  are  some  of  these  in 
all  ranks  of  life — souls  who,  with  an  un- 
wearied impulse  toward  truth,  renounce 
all  those  pretexts  with  which  the  slothful  of 
heart  seek  to  excuse  this  mental  instability, 
and  who,  moved  by  the  enthusiasm  and 
force  of  moral  conviction,  not  only  desire  to 
make  their  whole  duty  clear  before  their 
eyes  at  every  step  of  this  changing  life,  but 
also  obey  with  unhesitating  decision  every 
clear  call  to  action.""  "I  kept  guarding," 
says  Augustine,  "in  my  inner  perception  the 

1  The  character  of  Chilo  in  ^lo  Vadis  is  an  admirable  example  of 
this  type. 

^The  Microcosmus,  Vol.  II,  p.  63. 


124  RATIONAL     LIVING 

integrity  of  my  perceptions ;  and  in  the 
trifling  thoughts  which  are  suggested  by 
trifling  things,  I  was  delighted  in  the  truth. "^ 

Intellectual  Hindrances. —  These  very  illus- 
trations make  it  clear  that  intellectual  habits 
may  hinder  as  well  as  help  true  living. 

And,  first,  it  is  possible  to  cultivate 
intellectual  conditiojis  that  fairly  paralyze  the 
will.  Premature  multiplication  of  points  of 
view,  the  attitude  of  merely  curious  inquiry 
— "truth-hunting,"  as  Augustine  Birrell  calls 
it — the  simply  questioning  spirit,  the  purely 
reflective  and  morbidly  introspective  mind, 
as  well  as  playing  with  cynicism  and  pessi- 
mism—  all  bring  weakness  of  will  and  defec- 
tive character.  We  may  well  press  Birrell's 
pertinent  inquiry:  "Are  you  sure  that  it  is  a 
good  thing  for  you  to  spend  so  much  time 
in  speculating  about  matters  outside  3^our 
daily  life  and  walk?"  "Nothing  so  much 
tends  to  obliterate  plain  duties  as  the  free 
indulgence  of  speculative  habits."  "The  ver- 
dict to  be  striven  for  is  not  ^well-guessed,' 
but  'well-done.'"^  Stanley  Hall  feels  this  so 
strongly  that  he  says  that  philosophy  may  be 
so  taught   as  to  "produce  nothing  less  than  a 

^  Quoted  by  Granger,  7*^1?  Soul  of  the  Christian,  p.  263. 
^Obiter  Dicta,  Essay  on  Truth -hunting. 


SUGGESTIONS    FROM    UNITY    OF    MIND  125 

morbid  neurosis  of  cynicism,  indifference,  and 
selfishness."^  And  even  Royce  says:  "Philoso- 
phy is  most  decidedly  not  for  everybody." 

It  was  a  sound  instinct  which  led  Des- 
cartes, in  his  attempt  to  follow  to  the  bitter 
end  the  significance  of  a  universal  though 
"provisional  doubt,"  to  adopt,  meanwhile,  a 
definite  code  of  morals  which  should  control 
him  in  this  skeptical  period.  There  may  easily 
be  premature  philosophizing  that  reacts 
disastrously  on  conduct ;  since  only  deeper 
thinking  and  longer  experience  can  make 
clear  how  deeply  laid  are  the  foundations  of 
moral  principles.  For,  as  one  of  the  greatest 
philosophers  of  our  generation  has  said,  "The 
dignity  of  any  moral  custom  or  ceremony  can 
very  seldom  be  convincingly  shown  when  it  is 
regarded  in  isolation,  and  not  in  its  connection 
with  the  whole  spiritual  significance  of  human 
life;  having  a  thousand  roots  entwined  in  this, 
it  is  generally  wholly  incapable  of  a  concise 
syllogistic  proof  that  does  not,  in  its  turn, 
require  to  have  its  own  presuppositions  sup- 
ported by  an  infinite  scries  of  proof.  Just  on 
this  account  every  moral  command  is  exposed 
to  destructive  sophistry."^   That  is,  the  very 

*  In  article  on  The  Nenu  Psychtlogy,  as  a  Basis  »f  Education. 
'Lotzc,  The  Micrtctsmus,  Vol.  II,  p.  54. 


126  RATIONAL    LIVING 

depth  and  significance  of  the  proof  expose 
it  the  more  to  shallow  attack. 

It  is  of  no  small  value  here  to  keep  one's 
feet  planted  firmly  on  the  ground,  to  keep 
in  touch  with  sensible  objects,  to  work  — 
actually  to  work  —  upon  things;  we  cannot 
easily  become  sophists  when  we  are  in  normal, 
actual  contact  with  things.  This  is  a  part  of 
the  value  of  the  message  of  Tolstoi  and 
Howells.  The  fact  that  something  is  actually 
being  brought  to  pass  shows  that  one  is 
dealing  with  real  things  and  real  forces,  and 
not  simply  with  his  own  speculations.  Cssar's 
enthusiastic  pride  in  his  own  bridge-building, 
Carlyle's  admiration  of  his  father's  bridges, 
and  Stevenson's  elation  in  his  vegetables  may 
have  here,  in  part,  at  least,  their  psychological 
explanation. 

Too  few  remember  that  the  function  of 
doubt  —  by  the  very  make-up  of  our  nature 
—  is  always  only  temporary,  provisional;  that 
the  true  opposite  of  belief,  as  another  has 
said,  is  not  disbelief,  which  means  only 
another  belief,  but  doubt,  which  paralyzes 
action;  that  belief  is  the  only  normal  state. 
Robust  disbelief  is  one  thing;  but  incessant 
quibbling,  analyzing,  subtilizing,  playing 
dilettante,     sceptic,     and     sophist,     is     quite 


SUGGESTIONS    FROM    UNITY    OF    MIND  127 

another.  What  sense  of  reaHty  can  there  be 
for  such  minds,  what  truth,  what  reverence, 
what  enthusiasm,  or  what  purpose?  Mighty 
purposes  are  born  of  mighty  convictions,  and 
not  otherwise.  No  wonder  that  Charles 
Wagner  rings  out  over  the  youth  of  France  : 
"Enough  of  negations,  enough,  above  all,  of 
jugglers  and  poseurs  I  Give  us  men  of  faith 
and  action,  of  love  and  hate,  with  a  clear 
seeing  eye,  a  breast  that  throbs,  and  a  vigor- 
ous arm ;  men  who,  emancipated  from  idle 
fancies  and  the  empty  din  of  words,  are 
silent,  and  putting  their  hands  to  the  plow, 
drive,  as  their  witness,  a  straight  furrow  In 
the  field  of  life."i 

Yet,  it  is  probable  that  just  here  lies  the 
danger  of  the  highly  educated  man.  The 
very  breadth  of  view  which  his  education 
has  brought,  the  capacity  to  see  many  aspects 
of  a  matter,  his  cultivated  emphasis  on  the 
many-sidedness  of  truth  —  all  tend  to  ^^over- 
sophistication.''''  A  fatal  facility  in  taking  any 
point  of  view  or  of  defending  any  proposi- 
tion, which  is  one  of  the  natural  products  of 
his  education,  carries  with  it  the  danger  of 
breaking  down  all  real  conviction.  And  so 
it   is   quite   possible    for   a   man   to    graduate 

I  Charles  Wagner,  Youth^  p.  67. 


128  RATIONAL     LIVING 

from  college  with  high  honors,  but  positively 
less  fitted  for  any  valuable  and  effective  work 
in  life  than  if  he  had  never  seen  college 
doors. 

Nothing  can  replace  in  value  the  great  fun- 
damental convictions.  And  yet  it  is  a  mistaken 
inference  to  make  breadth  of  view  a  denial  of 
all  depth  of  view  —  to  make  many-sidedness 
of  truth  a  reason  for  giving  up  truth.  Breadth 
and  tolerance  are  not  indifferentism.  Truth  is 
many-sided  ;  but  truth  comes  not  through  the 
silence  of  all,  but  by  each  declaring  earnestly 
and  honestly  his  best.  In  no  other  way  can 
progress  in  truth  be  brought  about.  Each 
thinker,  therefore,  recognizes  that  his  own 
view  must  be  partial,  but  he  puts  it  forth  with 
all  energy  and  earnestness,  for  it  is  the  truth 
for  which  it  is  given  him  to  stand.  He  expects 
its  partial  character  to  be  corrected  by  conflict 
with  the  thought  of  other  equally  earnest 
and  honest  thinkers. 

A  closely  connected  danger  is  that  of 
making  insights  or  feeling  take  the  place  of 
doing.  The  possession  of  right  theories  of 
conduct,  carefully  thought  out,  or  of  kindly 
emotions,  is  often  assumed  to  insure  right 
conduct,  and  as  often  becomes  a  snare  to 
their   possessor.     Knowing    the    truth   is    not 


SUGGESTIONS     FROM     UNITY    OF     MIND  129 

doing  the  truth.  "Especially,"  says  Stanley 
Hall,  "wherever  good  precepts  are  allowed 
to  rest  peacefully  beside  bad  discarded 
habits,  moral  weakness  is  directly  culti- 
vated."^ There  are  temperaments  naturally 
gifted  with  clear  insight  and  delicately  sensi- 
tive to  the  bearings  of  conduct,  who  can 
speak  unerringly  concerning  the  temptations, 
dangers,  and  aids  of  living,  but  whose  lives 
seem  none  the  better.  DeQuincy  records 
that  this  is  precisely  the  state  of  the  opium- 
eater.  Such  a  character  is  likely  to  develop 
special  weakness  of  will,  for  there  is  positive 
injury  in  clear  insights  that  are  not  obeyed ; 
the  whole  character  is  cankered  by  this  per- 
sistent failure  to  live  according  to  one's 
best  light,  and  becomes  hollow  and  hypo- 
critical. The  problem  of  life  cannot  be  solved 
on  paper.  It  is  just  here  that  peculiar  danger 
besets  those  whose  business  it  is  to  think 
and  speak  much  along  the  lines  of  the  moral 
and  the  religious  life.  They  easily  persuade 
themselves  that  having  thought  and  felt 
and  spoken  so  clearly  of  the  right  life,  they 
may  rest  assured  that  right  conduct  will 
follow  as  a  matter  of  course.  There  is  danger, 
at    least,    that    the    proverb    which    Paulsen 

^Pedagogical  Seminary,  Vol.  II,  p.  8. 


130  RATIONAL    LIVING 

quotes  shall  prove  true:  "The  man  who 
rings  the  bell  cannot  march  in  the  proces- 
sion."^ 

Among  the  intellectual  hindrances  to 
character,  there  should  be  named  one  spe- 
cial effect  of  intellectual  vagueness.  It  is  in- 
tellectual vagueness,  I  believe,  which  gives 
the  chief  danger  to  many  forms  of  temptation. 
And  the  spiritual  leader  needs  to  see  this 
both  for  himself  and  for  others.  The  temp- 
tations are  alluring  only  so  long  as  their  real 
implications  are  allowed  to  remain  vague  in 
the  mind.  Let  them  be  fully  thought,  and 
their  power  is  gone.  They  will  not  bear 
investigation.  They  have  only  the  abnormal 
power  of  what  psychology  calls  the  "insistent 
ideas"  of  the  insane,  that  continually  impel 
one  to  some  action  that  he  may  even  abhor 
to  do. 

It  is  doubtless  not  advice  to  be  followed 
in  our  weaker  moods;  but  sometimes  the 
very  best  cure  for  these  insistent  tempta- 
tions is  no  longer  to  seek  simply  to  evade 
their  thought,  but  to  turn  a  square  look  at 
them.  In  some  clear,  high  moment  of  vision, 
at  a  time  when  one  is  at  his  best,  let  him 
calmly  and  clearly  face  the  facts  as   to  these 

^  Cf.  A  System  of  Ethics,  pp.  211-214. 


SUGGESTIONS    FROM    UNITY    OF    MIND  131 

things  which  he  has  counted  his  greatest 
allurements.  Let  him  turn  a  telescope  on 
the  Sirens  and  the  Lorelei  —  the  telescope  of 
a  little  clear  thinking.  They  are  not  so 
attractive  as  he  has  thought ;  their  beauty  is 
false  and  painted ;  their  smile,  a  leer.  It 
may  not  be  wholly  unwise  even  to  take  the 
cotton  out  of  one's  ears,  and  from  one's 
height  of  vantage  to  listen  for  a  moment 
with  thoughtful  attention  to  the  song  of  these 
sirens.  A  man  finds  the  song  coarser  than 
he  had  thought,  and  the  voices  too  harsh 
and  too  cruel  to  charm.  No !  One  does  not 
wish  to  let  himself  go  into  what  are  euphe- 
mistically called  "great  passions"  of  body  or 
mind. 

It  is  a  sobering  reflection  that  Lotze  gives 
us,  when  he  says:  "We  too  easily  forget  that 
much  which  looks  extremely  well  in  a  pic- 
ture and  has  a  striking  efjfect  in  poetry, 
would  make  us  heartily  ashamed  of  our  pre- 
possession if  we  were  to  see  it,  not  at  a  sin- 
gle favorable  moment  but  in  the  ordinary 
course  of  life,  in  connection  with  all  its  mani- 
fold results.  The  charm  of  what  is  strange 
and  full  of  characteristic  expression  and  one- 
sided originality,  is  so  great  that  it  leads 
every   one    to    be    sometimes   unjust    toward 


132  RATIONAL     LIVING 

that  consistent,  thoughtful,  steadfast  order 
of  civilized  life  vv^hich,  though  less  warm  in 
coloring,  is  ineffably  more  worthy."^  At  the 
"parting  of  the  ways,"  Lowell  promises,  if 
one  follows  the  call  of  Duty,  he  shall  find 
her  finally  more  beautiful  than  Pleasure,  and 
with  vastly  more  to  give.  The  "pilgrim 
chorus"  in  Wagner  is  better  music  than  the 
"Venus  music";  it  deserves  to  drown  the 
other,  oneself  being  judge.  Life  means  more, 
and  love  means  more,  with  Elizabeth,  than 
in  the  "Venus  mountain."  And  definite, 
clear  thinking,  avoiding  all  vagueness,  will 
show  it. 

Paulsen  states  the  same  point  with  con- 
vincing clearness  in  his  Introduction  to  Philos- 
ophy:  "There  is  perhaps  no  man  who  could 
look  back  upon  a  life  full  of  emptiness  and 
baseness,  full  of  falsehood  and  cowardice, 
full  of  wickedness  and  depravity,  with  feel- 
ings of  satisfaction.  At  any  rate,  it  would 
not  be  advisable  for  any  one  to  make  the 
trial.  The  lives  of  so-called  men  of  the  world 
and  their  female  partners,  or  of  blacklegs 
and  scoundrels,  little  and  big  ones,  are  not 
apt  to  be  described  at  length  and  openly 
either    by   themselves   or   others.     Should    it 

^  The  Microcosmus,  Vol.  II,  p.  65. 


SUGGESTIONS    FROM     UNITY    OF    MIND  1 33 

be  done,  and  perhaps  it  would  not  be  a  use- 
less task,  it  is  not  likely  that  any  one  would 
lay  aside  the  book  with  the  feeling :  that  was 
a  happy  and  enviable  life.  And  if  such  a 
life  had  achieved  an  apparent  success,  if  it 
had  committed  everything  and  enjoyed  every- 
thing with  impunity,  nevertheless,  it  would 
not  easily  strike  an  observer  as  a  beautiful 
and  desirable  lot."^ 

In  the  life  of  the  student  there  are  pe- 
culiar dangers  in  habits  of  study.  There  are 
situations  in  life  where  the  power  to  "cram," 
for  example,  is  of  undoubted  value,  and  its 
use  thoroughly  justified,  as  is  not  infrequently 
true  in  the  lawyer's  profession  in  working 
up  technical  details  required  in  some  par- 
ticular case.  But  to  rely  upon  "cramming" 
in  those  subjects  that  make  up  one's  educa- 
tional course  is  quite  another  matter.  This 
is  simply  to  put  an  easy  and  sham  process  in 
the  place  of  a  hard  and  honest  one.  This 
cannot  occur  without  mental  and  moral  loss. 
A  study  so  pursued  cannot  have  been  put 
in  relation  to  the  rest  of  one's  thinking.  It 
is  no  proper  part  of  the  man,  and  can  never 
become  one  of  his  permanent  interests.  And 
the  habit  of  merely  easy  and  superficial  work 

^  op.  cit.,  p.  73. 


134  RATIONAL    LIVING 

— the  baneful  want  of  thoroughness — must 
have  an  unfavorable  moral  effect. 

President  Stanley  Hall  calls  attention  to 
a  similar  abuse  of  elective  courses.  To  use 
the  elective  system  only  as  giving  oppor- 
tunity for  the  choice  of  easy  courses,  or  of 
taking  many  different  subjects,  is  to  lose  in 
discipline  of  both  intellect  and  will.  For  the 
beginnings  of  most  subjects  are  easy;  it  is 
only  as  one  pushes  on  that  he  can  derive 
from  them  any  severe  training. 

There  is  study  and  study.  Much  that  is 
so  called  hardly  deserves  the  name.  And 
the  kind  of  study  that  a  man  does  affects  the 
whole  man.  Many  students  would  gain  by 
shortening  their  hours  of  so-called  study,  by 
stopping  more  frequently  for  brief  periods 
of  rest,  and  by  studying  with  determined 
concentration  while  at  it.  This  does  not 
mean  working  on  one's  nerves,  in  a  tense, 
strained  attitude  of  mind,  but  cool,  calm, 
steady  attention  to  the  work  in  hand,  and  to 
that  alone,  even  if  the  mail  comes  in  the 
midst  of  one's  study.  It  is  a  great  epoch  in 
a  student's  career  when  he  has  had  experi- 
ence of  the  joy  and  achievement  of  the  best 
concentration  of  which  he  is  capable.  Now 
he  knows  what   study  means,  and  he  cannot 


SUGGESTIONS    FROM    UNITY    OF    MIND  I35 

again  content  himself  with  sitting  before  an 
open  text-book,  while  from  time  to  time  he 
recalls  his  mind  from  the  ends  of  the  earth. 
Gone  are  the  days  of  the  rocking-chair  and 
the  open  window,  gone  are  the  days  of  the 
half-hour's  journey  to  class,  and  of  the  fifteen 
minutes'  waiting  before  lectures,  gone  are  all 
"gasings"  in  his  precious  hours  of  study — 
he  has  learned  to  study!  He  has  learned 
how  to  rest,  and  he  has  learned  how  to  play; 
but  he  has  stopped  "fooling  around." 

II.    EMOTIONAL    CONDITIONS 

Another  natural  inference  from  the  unity 
of  the  mind  is  that  of  the  influence  of  feel- 
ing on  the  conduct  of  life. 

The  Stimulating  Kffect  of  Joyful  Emotions. 
—  The  observations  of  physiological  psy- 
chology show  that  joyful  emotions  have  a 
positively  stimulating  effect,  bodily  and 
mental.  Henle's  researches  proved  that  joy- 
ful emotions  relax  the  muscles  of  the 
arteries  and  of  the  bronchial  tubes,  quick- 
ening the  circulation  and  making  respira- 
tion freer,  and  this  without  the  evil  conse- 
quences which  attend  anger,  though  anger, 
also,  relaxes  the  same  muscles.    The  depres- 


136  RATIONAL    LIVING 

sing  emotions,  on  the  other  hand,  like  sorrow 
and  fear,  contract  the  arterial  and  bronchial 
muscles  and  so  distinctly  interfere  with  both 
the  circulation  and  breathing.  It  was  long 
ago  observed  that  blood  flowed  from  an  open 
wound  more  freely  at  the  sound  of  music. 
Recent  experiments  on  hypnotic  subjects 
fully  confirm  these  bodily  results  of  the 
emotions. 

And  it  is  only  a  broader  illustration  of  the 
same  influence  which  so  careful  an  observer 
as  Romanes  gives,  when,  writing  on  the  "sci- 
ence and  philosophy  of  recreation,"  he  says: 
"It  is  impossible  to  over-estimate  the  value 
of  the  emotions  in  this  connection  —  a  pro- 
longed flow  of  happy  feeling  doing  more  to 
brace  up  the  system  for  work  than  any  other 
influence  operating  for  a  similar  length  of 
time."^  Miss  Brackett,  consequently,  seems 
justified  in  saying  that  there  is  "no  work, 
whatever  it  may  be,  that  is  so  exhausting 
as  painful  emotion."  "There  is  no  tonic  so 
uplifting  and  renewing  as  joy,  which  sets  into 
active  exercise  every  constructive  power  of 
the  body. "2 

Whether    or    not    we     accept     Professor 

^Popular  Science  Monthly,  Vol.  XV,  pp.  772  ff. 
^The  Technique  of  Rest,  p.  117. 


SUGGESTIONS    FROM     UNITY    OF    MIND  137 

James'  famous  theory  of  the  emotions,  that 
they  are  simply  the  feehng  of  the  bodily 
changes  which  directly  follow  the  percep- 
tion of  an  exciting  fact,  the  observations 
which  make  any  defense  of  the  theory  pos- 
sible are  sufficient  evidence  that,  as  he  says, 
"the  entire  organism  may  be  called  a  sound- 
ing-board, which  every  change  of  conscious- 
ness, however  slight,  may  make  reverberate." 
"Our  whole  cubic  capacity  is  sensibly  alive, 
and  each  morsel  of  it  contributes  its  pulsation 
of  feeling,  dim  or  sharp,  pleasant,  painful  or 
dubious,  to  that  sense  of  personality  that 
every  one  of  us  unfailingly  carries  with 
him."i 

Now  all  these  facts  not  only  show  again 
the  marvelous  intimacy  of  the  relation  be- 
tween mind  and  body  (which  is  not  now  the 
point  under  consideration),  but  also  help  us 
to  see  the  bearing  of  emotion  on  volition, 
though  it  is  here  exerted  indirectly  through 
the  body  ;  they  help  us  to  see  why  emotion 
actually  increases  our  sense  of  reality,  and 
why  it  must  have  an  important  contribution 
to  make  to  our  deepest  life.^  This  is  pecu- 
liarly true  of  joy,  if  it  is  taken  in  no  shallow 

^Op.  cit.,  Vol.  II,  pp.  450,  451. 

*  Cf.  King,  Personal  and  Ideal  Elements  in  Education,  pp.  227  ff. 


138  RATIONAL    LIVING 

surface  way.  It  literally  makes  us  live  more, 
and  so  gives  a  deeper  sense  of  the  reality 
of  all  other  life.  For  this  very  reason  it 
helps  directly  to  convictions  which  make  vo- 
lition easy.  As  Keats  puts  it:  "Axioms  are  not 
axioms  until  they  have  been  felt  upon  our 
pulses."  We  are  made  for  joy  —  body  and 
mind;  our  very  constitution  proclaims  it.  Pain 
is  not  a  good  in  itself,  and  unnecessary 
depression  and  needless  worry  only  lessen 
our  power  for  work,  and  —  what  is  more  — 
weaken  our  power  to  will.  The  relation  is 
close  and  simple.  Joy  directly  increases  our 
vitality.  Greater  vitality  gives  greater  sense 
of  reality.  This  means  stronger  convictions. 
Of  convictions  purposes  are  born.  And  con- 
viction and  purpose  make  influence  certain. 
The  spiritual  life  may  not  safely  ignore  these 
plain  facts.  Joy  has  its  very  distinct  mission 
and  place  in  the  spiritual  life.  Are  not 
Christian  ministers  too  prone  to  forget  that 
the  message  they  are  set  to  bring  is  a  gospel — 
good  news?  An  ultimate  message  of  hope 
is  essential   to  the  strongest   living. 

'The  Danger  of  Strained  and  Sham  Amo- 
tions.—  But  while  real  joy  has,  within  limits, 
a  healthful,  stimulating  influence,  strained 
and    sham    emotion    is    to     be     everywhere 


I  SUGGESTIONS    FROM    UNITY    OF    MIND  139 


avoided,  for  strained  and  sham  emotion  is 
followed  by  an  inevitable  reaction  often  pro- 
found, and  by  a  more  dreadful  sense  of  un- 
reality. The  hysterical  feeling  taints  with  its 
falseness  all  else,  and  so  saps  conviction  and 
motive  for  action.  "When  the  soul  pretends 
to  graces  which  are  denied  it,"  says  Granger, 
following  St.  Teresa,  "the  effect  passes 
quickly,  and  'aridity  is  the  result.'"^  There 
is  a  kind  of  dishonesty,  too,  involved  in  these 
sham  emotions  that  must  react  unfavorably 
on  the  whole  life.  Moreover,  the  false  emo- 
tion hinders  the  true,  and  is  a  positive  drain 
instead  of  help.  Strain  is  everywhere  drain. 
Neither  physically  nor  mentally  are  we  con- 
stituted for  continuously  tense  conditions. 
And,  where  the  tenseness  is  forced,  we  have 
made  impossible  normal,  wholesome  living. 
Healthful  and  helpful  emotion  simply  comes 
as  a  normal  attendant;  it  is  not  manufactured. 
This  counsel  against  sham  and  strained 
emotion  has  many  applications.  All  personal 
relations,  for  example,  suffer  from  hysterical 
emotion ;  no  true  friendship  can  be  built 
upon  a  false  foundation.  And  most  of  the 
abnormal  elements  in  the  religious  life  may 
be  traced  to  the  same  cause.    Ritschl  seems 

^The  Soul  of  the  Christian,  p,  127. 


I40  RATIONAL    LIVING 

quite  justified  in  saying:  "The  craving  after 
assurance  leads  to  an  artificial  tension  of 
sentiment,  with  interruptions  by  moments  of 
despair,  or  with  the  risk  of  lasting  self- 
deception."^  "Experiences"  of  any  kind  can- 
not healthfully  be  sought  anywhere  as  ends 
in  themselves.  We  shall  find  this  consider- 
ation forced  upon  us  later  from  another  point 
of  view,  in  the  need  of  the  objective  mood. 
The  Influence  of  Moods  on  Willing. —  In 
considering  the  emotional  conditions  of  living, 
one  must,  also,  not  forget  the  great  influence 
of  moods  on  volition.  Few  great  choices  are 
made  by  a  simple,  heavy  tug  of  the  will. 
Commonly  our  moods  must  favor  the  will. 
And  here  lies  the  importance  of  what  James 
has  called  the  "serious  and  strenuous  moods." 
It  is  in  these  moods  that  it  becomes  more 
easily  possible  for  one  to  see  life  as  it  is, 
more  easily  possible  to  do  what  he  ought. 
These  are  the  natural  birth  hours  of  great 
decisions,  and  they  should  not  be  allowed 
lightly  to  pass.  The  production  of  the  serious 
and  strenuous  mood  is,  moreover,  by  no 
means,  wholly  beyond  our  power.  We  can 
do  much  to  induce  the  high  thoughtfulness 
that    makes    us    capable    of    great    decisions. 

^Quoted  by  Granger,  The  Soul  of  a  Christian,  p.  8i. 


SUGGESTIONS    FROM     UNITY    OF     MIND  I4I 

We  can,  at  least,  deliberately  place  ourselves 
in  the  presence  of  the  great  truths — we  can 
give  the  spiritual  world  a  chance  to  make 
its  legitimate  impression  upon  us.  On  the 
other  hand,  one  needs  so  to  guard  himself 
that  no  significant  decisions  will  come  into 
his  weak  and  nerveless  moments. 

The  Danger  of  Passive  Emotion. —  Few  psy- 
chologists from  the  time  of  Bishop  Butler 
have  failed  to  notice  one  other  danger  con- 
nected with  the  emotions  —  the  danger  of 
merely  passive  emotion.  Hofifding  quotes 
Ideler  as  saying,  "Passive  emotion  only, 
which  is  reduced  to  an  empty  longing,  vain 
desire,  foolish  hope,  or  cowardly  denial,  is 
the  root  of  madness."^  This  is  strong  lan- 
guage, and  yet  we  are  all  of  us,  in  different 
degrees,  subject  to  this  danger  of  indulgence 
in  merely  passive  emotion.  It  is  not  the 
habitue  of  the  theater  alone,  nor  the  in- 
veterate novel-reader,  who  suffers  here.  By 
the  sure  working  of  mental  laws,  to  indulge 
merely  passive  emotion,  followed  by  no 
action,  is  just  so  far  to  incapacitate  ourselves 
for  action.  For  our  capacity  for  warm  feel- 
ing under  the  same  circumstances  diminishes ; 
and,  unless  this  diminishing  emotion  is  made 

^Op.  cit.,  p.  338. 


142  RATIONAL    LIVING 

good  by  a  habit  of  action,  the  time  comes 
when  one  can  not  act.  These  are  the  facts 
which  lie  at  the  basis  of  the  injunction  which 
every  earnest  psychologist  must  urge :  Make 
certain  that  every  right  emotion  has  its 
prompt  and  proper  expression  in  action.  To 
be  deeply  moved  to  feelings  of  pity,  of 
sympathy,  of  aspiration,  whether  by  concert 
or  by  sermon,  by  theater  or  by  novel,  and 
to  fail  to  put  this  feeling  into  some  form  of 
expression,  conduces  directly  to  will-weaken- 
ing—  to  a  merely  passive  and  sentimental 
character.  The  mind  is  here  its  own  avenger. 
This  consideration  needs  to  be  urged  in 
audiences  of  religious  people,  for  passive 
religious  emotion  has  identical  dangers.  The 
principle,  also,  indicates  the  weakness  of 
mere  exhortation ;  the  crying  need  is  often 
for  definite  suggestion  or  direction  of  precise 
ways  in  which  the  feeling  or  resolution 
stirred  may  be  wisely  expressed. 

The  Need  of  Power  to  Withstand  Strong 
Emotion. —  Nor  should  one  forget,  although 
it  is  possible,  as  I  have  said,  for  emotion  to 
add  greatly  to  the  sense  of  reality,  that  one 
must  often  turn  from  the  most  exciting 
emotion  and  refuse  to  pass  judgment  until 
reason,    and    not    emotion   only,    bids.    The 


SUGGESTIONS    FROM    UNITY    OF    MIND  I43 

matter  must  not  only  seem  real;  it  must 
also  justify  itself  as  rational  and  ethical}  It 
has  been  well  said  by  another  that  "the 
highest  result  of  education"  is  to  give  the 
power  "to  suspend  belief  in  the  presence  of 
an  emotionally  exciting  idea."^  And  no  man 
has  himself  wholly  in  hand  who  is  without 
this  power.  Where  reason  has  already  en- 
tered its  judgment,  we  may  rejoice  in  all 
the  quickening  sense  of  reality  that  emotion 
can  give ;  but  where  reason  holds  the  de- 
cision still  in  suspense,  no  emotion  can  be 
strong  enough  to  justify  belief  or  to  justify 
action.  And,  to-day,  there  are  wide-spread 
tendencies  at  work  which  particularly  need 
this  "power  to  suspend  belief."  As  Jastrow 
says,  "the  opinions  to  which  we  incline  are 
all  colored  o'er  with  the  deep  tinge  of 
emotional  reality,  which  is  the  living  expres- 
sion of  our  interest  in  them  or  our  inclina- 
tion toward  them.  What  they  require  is  a 
more  vigorous  infusion  of  the  pale  cast  of 
thought;  for  the  problem  of  the  occult  and 
the  temptations  to  belief  which  it  holds  out 
are  such  as  can  be  met  only  by  a  sturdy 
application    of    a    critical    logic. "^ 

^  Cf.  King,  Personal  and  Ideal  Elements  in  Education,  pp.  164  ff. 
'James,  Psychology,  Vol.  II,  p.  308. 
^  Fact  and  Fable  in  Psychology,  p.  39. 


J44  RATIONAL     LIVING 

Nowhere  more  than  in  the  presence  of  ex- 
citing emotion  can  a  man  prove  himself  w^orthy 
of  the  noble  figure  of  Plato,  of  the  soul  as 
charioteer,  driving  its  four  horses  abreast 
and  having  them  all  in  hand.  And  to  this 
end,  as  Hoffding  says,  "we  must  utilize  the 
intervals  between  strong  emotions."  "By 
bringing  ourselves  under  certain  definite 
conditions,  we  may  further  or  prevent  the 
birth  of  certain  feelings."^  But  with  this 
consideration  we  have  already  entered  upon 
the  field  of  the  'volitional  conditions  of  rational 
living,  which  may  be  best  treated  in  the 
next  great  division  of  our  inquiry.  Some  of 
the  most  important  suggestions  as  to  emo- 
tional conditions,  too,  it  should  be  borne 
in  mind,  will  meet  us  in  the  later  consid- 
eration of  the  fundamental  importance  of 
respect  for  personality. 

»  op.  cit.,  pp.  334,  333. 


THE    CENTRAL    IMPORTANCE  OF 
WILL  AND  ACTION 

CHAPTER  IX 

THE    CENTRAL    IMPORTANCE    OF  WILL   AND    ACTION^ 
THE    PSYCHOLOGICAL    EVIDENCE 

"A  MAN  does  what  he  is  at  the  time,"  the 
older  psychology  said.  This  the  newer  psy- 
chology reaffirms,  but  adds  with  even  greater 
emphasis :  a  man  is  at  the  time  what  he 
does.  Not  feelings,  not  sentiments,  moral 
sensibilities,  or  aspirations,  not  principles, 
not  good  resolutions,  even,  but  only  action, 
born  of  the  will,  truly  reveals  us.  "If  no 
external  action  follows  upon  the  internal," 
asks  HofTding,  "how  can  I  be  certain  that  I 
have  really  willed?"  "Many  people  regard 
themselves  as  great  heroes  of  the  will,  be- 
cause they  have  reveled  in  great  resolves, 
although  these  never  acquired  the  tangible 
and  prosaic  form  of  external  actions."  Stanley 
Hall  says:  "To  live  is  now  to  act:  acts  lay 
down  the  primitive  strata  in  the  soul,  which 
determine   even   the    deepest    belief."^    This 

1  In  article  on  Research,  the  Vital  Spirit  tf  Teaching. 

J  (hs) 


146  RATIONAL    LIVING 

emphasis  on  action,  "the  voluntaristic  trend" 
in  modern  psychology,  seems  unmistakable ; 
so  that  Paulsen  can  say:  "Of  late,  psychology 
tends  more  and  more  to  consider  will  as  the 
primary  and  constitutive  function  of  the 
mind."^  What,  then,  is  the  basis  of  this 
assertion?  What  are  the  psychological  facts? 

I.  THE   SUGGESTION   OF  EVOLUTION 

No  doubt  this  "voluntaristic  trend"  is  in 
part  due  to  the  influence  of  the  evolution 
theory  and  to  the  w^ider  view  opened  up  by 
comparative  psychology,  which  Paulsen  has 
made  so  prominent  in  his  discussion.  If  mind 
is  granted  to  the  lower  animals,  it  is  difficult 
to  believe  that  the  perceptive  function  in 
mind  is  nearly  so  fundamental  as  the  active 
impulsive  function.  The  animal  seems  to  act 
not  so  much  in  view  of  certain  perceptions, 
as  because  of  certain  impulses.  Not  insight 
but  impulse  seems  the  beginning;  and  not 
insight  but  action  seems  the  end. 

II.    IMPULSE   TO   ACTION,    FUNDAMENTAL 

But  if  the  animal  world  and  the  evo- 
lutionary origin  of  man  are  left  quite  out  of 

^Introduction  to  Philosophy,  p.  113. 


THE   VOLUNTARISTIC   TREND   IN   PSYCHOLOGY        1 47 

account,  the  psychological  importance  of 
action  is  hardly  lessened.  Hoffding  agrees 
with  Paulsen  in  saying  the  same  thing  of  man 
that  has  been  said  of  the  animal.  "As  Fichte 
taught,"  he  says,  "the  most  original  thing  in 
us  is  the  impulse  to  action ;  it  is  given  before 
the  consciousness  of  the  world  and  cannot 
be  derived  from  it."  Schopenhauer  built  his 
philosophy  wholly  on  this  conception,  deriv- 
ing "the  world  as  idea"  from  "the  world  as 
will."  It  is  quite  in  harmony  with  this  when 
Hoffding  goes  further  and  says:  "Since  it 
has  been  shown  to  be  the  most  essential  fea- 
ture of  consciousness,  that  all  the  individual 
elements  and  states  are  united  through  one 
synthetic  activity,  it  may  be  said  that  to 
volitional  activity  is  due  the  existence  of 
consciousness  itself."  And  he  adds  later: 
"But  even  at  the  highest  stages  of  mental 
development,  a  purpose  and  a  feeling  aroused 
by  this  purpose,  rule  the  course  of  thought. 
The  more  such  a  mental  center  of  gravity 
(the  real  self)  is  wanting,  the  more  discon- 
nected will  consciousness  become."  And  still 
further:  "And  only  through  firm  volition  is 
actual  self-consciousness  possible.  What  is  ex- 
pressed in  the  unity  and  the  continuity  of 
memory,  and  in  immediate  feeling  of  self,  is 


148  RATIONAL     LIVING 

completed  in  the  act  of  will,  in  which  all 
elements  of  consciousness  cooperate  with  con- 
centrated force.  In  our  resolves  and  acts  of 
will,  the  real  unity  of  our  ^self '  is  most  strik- 
ingly manifested ;  in  them  we  learn  to  know 
ourselves  most  clearly  and  best."^  It  would 
be  hard  to  make  the  fundamental  character 
of  volitional  activity  more  emphatic. 

So  Baldwin-  'makes  imitative  activity  the 
bridge  between  the  earlier  and  later  stages 
of  the  development  of  self  -  consciousness. 
Royce,  also,  points  out  that  there  is  sometimes 
"a  discontent  which  prefers  even  painful  ex- 
periences to  the  present  pleasures,  simply  be- 
cause the  painful  experiences  will  give  an 
opportunity  for  the  exertion  of  those  activi- 
ties which  our  restless  feelings  demand." 
This  shows  how  peculiarly  strong  the  im- 
pulse to  action  often  is ;  and  Royce  calls 
attention  to  the  very  great  biological  impor- 
tance of  the  phenomenon.  He  also  shows 
how  essential  activity  is  even  to  perception : 
"If  you  are  to  train  the  powers  of  perception, 
you  must  train  the  conduct  of  the  person  who  is 
to  learn  how  to  perceive.  Nobody  sees  more 
than    his    activities    have    prepared     him    to 

^  op.  cit.,  pp.  310,  314,  316,  332. 

^Mental  Development,  Methods  and  Processes,  p.  340. 


THE   VOLUNTARISTIC    TREND   IN   PSYCHOLOGY        149 

see  in  the  world."  ^  We  can  hardly  fail  to 
see  in  all  this  how  fundamental  the  impulse 
to  action  is. 


III.    THE    NATURAL   TERMINUS    OF   EVERY 
EXPERIENCE    IS    ACTION 

But,  no  doubt,  the  voluntaristic  trend  in 
psychology  rests  still  more  obviously  upon 
the  fact  that  the  natural  terminus  of  every 
experience  —  bodily  and  mental  —  is  action. 
In  mind  and  body  we  are  organized  for 
action » 

The  Body,  Organized  for  Action. —  The 
circulation  of  the  blood,  we  are  told,  looks 
to  action.  "Every  act  evincing  life,"  says  a 
recent  writer  on  physiology,  "is  the  result  of 
the  transformation  of  potential  into  kinetic 
energy,  and  the  object  of  circulation  is  to 
remove  waste  and  provide  for  such  a  renewal 
of  tissue  and  of  oxygen  as  to  maintain  the 
normal  amount  of  potential  energy  within 
the  organism."^  And  a  distinguished  psy- 
chologist says:  "The  blood  has  at  once  both 
a  nourishing  and  a  stimulating  effect."^ 

^  op.  cit.,  pp.  187,  226. 

*  Health  Primers:    The  Heart  and  its  Functions,  p.  73. 

'Hoffding,  Outlines  of  Psychology,  p.  310. 


I50  RATIONAL    LIVING 

So,  too,  "the  whole  neural  organising''''  James 
reminds  us,  "is,  physiologically  considered, 
but  a  machine  for  converting  stimuli  into 
reactions."^  It  finds  its  end  in  action,  and 
the  nervous  process  is  never  normally  com- 
plete until  it  has  issued  in  some  form  of 
action.  This  is  what  Baldwin  calls  the  law  of 
dynamogenesis,  and  he  regards  it  as  so 
certain  in  its  operation,  that  he  bases  upon 
it  his  "dynamogenic  method"  of  child-study, 
holding  that  "the  infant's  hand  movements 
in  reaching  and  grasping  are  the  best  index 
of  the  kind  and  intensity  of  its  sensory  ex- 
periences."^ That  the  nervous  tissue  is  such 
that  we  become  in  our  bodies  readily  and 
certainly  bundles  of  habits,  points  to  the 
same  importance  of  action.  The  nervous 
tissue  may  well  be  so  made  if  action  is  the  end. 

The  muscular  system  tells  a  similar  story. 
Stanley  Hall  must  be  correct  in  his  conclusion 
that  the  proportion  of  muscles  in  the  human 
anatomy  is  significant.  The  human  body  is 
made  for  action,  and  it  has  other  muscles, 
as  he  insists,  than  those  which  wag  the 
tongue  or  move  a  pen. 

President   Hall   urges  especially   that  "ac- 

^  op.  cit.,  Vol.  II,  p.  372. 

^Mental  Development,  Methods  and  Processes,  p.  44. 


THE    VOLUNTARISTIC    TREND    IN    PSYCHOLOGY        15 1 

tivity  is  imperatively  necessary  at  adoles- 
cence," and  that  education  must  provide,  at 
this  period,  some  outlet  for  activity;  that  it 
is  even  hygienic  for  the  physical  to  take  the 
lead.  The  peculiar  natural  power  of  all  the 
active  instincts  at  adolescence  certainly  can 
never  be  wisely  ignored.  At  no  other  time 
does  the  human  being  show  so  clearly  that 
he  is  made  for  action.  "The  love  of  excite- 
ment and  adventure ;  the  fierce  combative 
instinct  that  delights  in  danger,  in  struggle, 
and  even  in  destruction ;  the  restless  ambition 
that  seeks  with  an  insatiable  longing  to  better 
its  position  and  to  climb  heights  that  are  yet 
unsealed ;  the  craving  for  some  enjoyment 
which  not  merely  gives  pleasure  but  carries 
with  it  a  thrill  of  passion," — all  these  are  par- 
ticularly in  evidence  at  this  period;  and  it  is, 
surely,  as  Lecky  says,  a  part  of  the  business  of 
education  to  find  for  them  a  "healthy,  useful, 
or  at  least  harmless  sphere  of  action.  In  the 
chemistry  of  character  they  may  ally  them- 
selves with  the  most  heroic  as  well  as  with 
the  worst  parts  of  our  nature."^ 

But  the  need  of  engrossing  activity 
throughout  life  is  hardly  less  for  great  num- 
bers  of   the    inadequately  trained.    A   recent 

*  op.  cit.,  p.  264. 


152  RATIONAL     LIVING 

writer  voices  the  complaint  of  one  such 
character:  "'For  God's  sake,'  he  began, 
w^ithout  preamble,  'can't  you,  'mongst  all  the 
discoveries  you're  makin',  find  something 
kind  o'  innocent  and  excitin'  to  amuse  a 
man  like  me?'"  "Starved  longings,"  the 
writer  continues,  "unrealized  desires,  over- 
flowing animal  spirits  without  legitimate  out- 
let, unbalanced  natures  destitute  of  training 
in  self-control,  impoverished  aspirations, — 
these  are  what  lie  at  the  foundation  of  the 
social  problem  which  the  reformer  has  to 
solve,  and  no  remedy  which  does  not  take 
all  these  into  consideration  will  ever  be 
permanently  efficacious."^  And  much  of  all 
this  goes  back  at  once  to  the  body's  need 
for  active  expression. 

The  conclusion  of  Lotze's  careful  com- 
parison of  the  human  body  with  animal 
bodies  is  that  the  human  body  stands  at 
the  head  of  the  scale  of  creatures,  when 
estimated  by  capacity  for  work.  Some  animals 
are  swifter,  some  are  stronger,  some  are 
longer-lived,  but  none  has  such  combined 
advantages  in  capacity  for  work.^  The  human 
body  is  made  for  action. 

^Martha  Baker  Dunn,  in  Atlantic  Monthly,  August,   1904. 
^The  Microcosmus,  Book  IV,  Chap,  IV. 


THE   VOLUNTARISTIC    TREND    IN    PSYCHOLOGY        I53 

Now,  if  the  modern  psychology  is  at  all 
justified  in  its  assertion  of  the  unity  of  man, 
body  and  mind,  if  the  relation  here  is  one- 
half  as  close  as  psychology  supposes,  then 
these  facts  about  the  body  of  man  cannot  be 
without  significance  for  the  mind. 

The  Mind  Organized  for  Action. —  And 
the  mind  of  man  does,  in  truth,  furnish  a 
parallel.  It,  too,  in  all  its  experiences,  looks 
to  action.  The  psychologist  expresses  this 
by  saying  that  all  consciousness  is  naturally  im- 
pulsive; that  is,  that  every  idea  tends  to  pass 
into  action,  and  would  do  so  if  it  were  not 
hindered  by  the  presence  of  other  ideas ; 
that  exclusive  attention  to  an  idea  is  quite 
certain,  therefore,  to  bring  about  the  corre- 
sponding action,  as  it  were,  of  itself.  The  so- 
called  "ideo-motor  action"  thus,  is  not  to  be 
regarded  as  exceptional,  but  rather  as  the 
normal  type  of  all  action.  Cognition  thus 
becomes,  as  James  says,  only  the  cross-section 
of  a  current  forward  toward  action.  Only 
hold  the  end  steadily  before  you,  and  you 
will  do  it. 

The  sweep  of  this  principle  is,  usually, 
hardly  recognized.  It  means  that  the  doing  of 
a  thing  follows,  from  simple  concentration  of 
attention  upon  it.  It  gives  new  point  to  the  old 


154  RATIONAL     LIVING 

proverb:  "As  a  man  thinketh  in  his  heart,  so 
is  he."  In  both  sHght  and  grave  matters,  the 
principle  seems  to  hold.  Filled  with  this  one 
idea,  we  go  forward  almost  as  if  moved  from 
without,  sometimes  in  a  kind  of  daze,  into  the 
performance  of  the  act  to  which  the  idea  looks. 
The  idea  tends  of  itself  to  pass  into  act,  and 
only  needs  the  exclusive  field  to  do  so.  It 
is  the  idea  that  finds  an  otherwise  vacant 
mind  that  gets  done ;  it  is  the  engrossing 
temptation  that  conquers.  Even  the  self- 
regarding  desires  of  the  most  selfish  man, 
too,  Butler  long  ago  pointed  out,  are  neces- 
sarily directed  outward  ;  they  terminate  upon 
things,  and  call  for  action. 


IV.     FOR   THE    VERY   SAKE   OF  THOUGHT  AND 
FEELING,   ONE    MUST   ACT 

It  is  not  only  true  that  thought  and  feel- 
ing tend  to  pass  into  action,  but  that,  because 
of  the  unity  of  man,  one  must  act  for  the 
very  sake  of  thought  and  feeling./  The  "vol- 
untaristic  trend"  in  psychology,  therefore,  is 
not,  when  properly  taken,  a  new  one-sided- 
ness,  a  needed,  but  extreme  and  passing 
fashion  of  the  hour.  Certainly  -it  is  in  no 
such   one-sided  way  that   I   mean   to  defend 


THE    VOLUNTARISTIC    TREND    IN    PSYCHOLOGY        155 

the  principle.  That  would  be  to  deny  the 
mind's  real  unity/  When  psychology  insists 
upon  the  central  importance  of  action,  it  is 
not  decrying  feeling  and  thinking ;  but  it  is 
saying  that  not  only  do  thought  and  feeling 
tend  to  pass  into  action  as  their  end,  but 
that  these  cannot  themselves  come  to  their 
highest  without  some  form  of  expression. 
Of  course  the  new  impression  so  obtained 
becomes,  again,  in  its  turn,  stimulus  to  further 
action.  Even  as  to  our  mental  imagery,  Royce 
contends :  J^The  most  wholesome  training  of 
the  imagination  is  properly  to  be  carried  out 
in  connection  with  the  training  of  conduct./^ 
"Axioms  are  not  axioms  until  they  have 
been  felt  upon  our  pulses,"  Keats  has  been 
quoted  as  saying.  It  is  still  more  true  to 
say:  Axioms  are  not  axioms  until  they  have 
been  done  by  our  muscles.  You  will  then 
best  feel  them  and  best  think  them.  And  it 
holds  in  even  the  most  abstract  realm- — in 
mathematics.  This  is  the  chief  justification 
of  the  great  number  of  comparatively  simple 
problems  and  original  exercises  in  all  our 
best  modern  mathematical  text-books.  The 
student  must  repeatedly  express  his  thought, 
thoroughly   to    understand    or    retain   it.    A 

1  op.  cit.,  p.  i6j. 


156  RATIONAL    LIVING 

principle  applied  is  a  very  different  thing 
from  a  principle  held  in  the  abstract,  ^he 
idea,7the  knowledge  content,  ^rows  out  of, 
as  well  as  leads  up  to,  action,'^  Dewey  says. 
The  expression,  the  application,  naturally 
gives  what  we  call  the  realizing  sense. 

The  same  psychological  principle  justifies 
all  laboratory  and  seminar  methods.  There  is 
no  other  justification  of  the  large  amount  of 
time  given  to  working  out  in  the  laboratory, 
principles  and  statements  that  could  be 
learned  in  themselves  in  a  fraction  of  the 
time  given.  It  is  justly  believed  that  only 
as  the  statements  and  principles  are  worked 
out  by  the  student  himself,  can  they  be 
grasped  with  full  intelligence.  One  must  do, 
to  know.  What  Kedney  says  of  the  artist 
is  true  of  every  man:  His  idea  or  ideal  "is 
not  his  till  he  has  expressed  it,  and  is  more 
completely  his  the  more  perfect  the  expres- 
sion." "A  thing  known,"  says  Fremantle, 
"is  a  thing  incorporated  into  the  human 
personality  and  made  spiritual."^ 

Wundt's  deeply  significant  principle  of  the 
^^  heterogony  of  ends^''  suggests  how  far-reaching 
in  its  effects  expressive  activity  may  be.    "We 

^Kedney's  HegeVs  Aesthetics,  p.  iii  ;  The  World,  the  Subject  of 
Redemption,  p.  30. 


THE   VOLUNTARISTIC   TREND   IN   PSYCHOLOGY        157 

mean  to  express  by  this  name,"  he  says, 
"what  is  a  matter  of  universal  experience: 
that  manifestations  of  will,  over  the  whole 
range  of  man's  free  voluntary  actions,  are 
always  of  such  a  character  that  the  effects 
of  the  actions  extend  more  or  less  widely 
beyond  the  original  motives  of  volition,  so 
that  new  motives  are  originated  for  future 
actions,  and  again,  in  their  turn,  produce 
new  effects."  "Its  essential  warrant  is  this: 
that  owing  to  the  constant  influence  of  acces- 
sory factors  the  result  of  every  act  of  choice 
is  as  a  whole  not  congruent  with  the  end 
ideated  in  the  motive.  But  those  elements 
of  the  result  that  lie  outside  of  the  original 
motive  are  eminently  fitted  to  become  new 
motives,  or  elements  in  new  motives,  from 
which  new  ends  or  variations  of  the  original 
end  arise."  ^  Wundt  believes  this  principle 
to  be  one  of  the  most  important  laws  in  all 
moral  development,  and  it  certainly  puts  in 
new  light  the  supreme  importance  of  expres- 
sive activity.  For  it  means  not  merely  that 
the  bare  thought  which  we  now  have  de- 
mands expression ;  but  that  many  new  rela- 
tions  of   our   thought   will    never   come   out 

^Ethics  :   The  Facts  of  the  Moral  Life^  Eng.  Tr.,  p.  330;  Cf.  pp. 
208,  226,  243-247. 


158  RATIONAL    LIVING 

for  US  until  we  have  expressed  it.  Not  only 
the  reality  of  our  present  thinking,  conse- 
quently, but  our  growth,  intellectual  and 
moral,  demands  expressive  activity.  Through 
active  expression  we  come  into  an  increas- 
ingly rich  and  complex  life. 

It  is  even  true,  as  Hoffding  says,  that  "the 
development  of  the  will  in  general  reacts  upon 
the  thought,  strengthening  and  modifying  it. 
A  firm  resolve,  carried  out  with  decision 
and  without  hesitation,  clears  up  the  whole 
mental  atmosphere  and  scatters  the  clouds 
which  dim  the  clearness  of  thought;  it  makes 
one  single  idea  the  central  point  of  conscious- 
ness, and  obliges  all  other  ideas  to  give  way 
before  this  one,  or  to  subordinate  themselves 
to  it.  Hence  arises  a  firm  and  systematic  con- 
nection of  consciousness.  Sequence  of  thought 
and  firmness  of  character  are  closely  related."^ 

To  attain,  then,  any  real  unity  of  the  whole 
man,  one  must  act.  It  was  Carlyle's  recogni- 
tion o^  Goethe's  "religion  of  the  deed,"  not 
of  feeling,  Seeley  thinks,  that  led  him  so 
vigorously  to  urge  upon  his  generation : 
"Close  thy  Byron;  open  thy  Goethe."  Not 
ideal  emotion,  but  ideal  action  is  the  aim. 

^Op.  cit.,  p.  331  ;  Cf.  also  Baldwin,  Mental  Development,  Meth- 
ods  and  Processes,  p.  361. 


THE   VOLUNTARISTIC   TREND   IN   PSYCHOLOGY       1 59 
V.  THE   WILL   IN   ATTENTION 

The  will  reveals  itself  most  directly  in 
attention.  It  is  often  said  sweepingly  that  a 
man's  environment  makes  him.  Not  to  insist 
upon  the  obvious  fact  that  there  must  be 
a  germ  with  a  certain  nature  in  order  that 
any  environment  may  work  its  effect,  it  is 
particularly  important  to  notice  in  the  case  of 
man,  that  not  his  entire  environment,  but  only 
that  part  of  his  environment  to  which  he  attends 
really  makes  him.  "The  fundamental  truth  is," 
as  Hoffman  says,  "that  interest  is  primarily  the 
product  of  attention,  not  the  reverse."^  The 
same  world,  as  we  have  seen,  is  a  very  differ- 
ent world  to  different  men.  Even  advanc- 
ing civilization  is  no  guaranty  of  each  indi- 
vidual's ethical  progress.  As  Wundt  says: 
"The  ethical  influence  of  civilization  is  every- 
where ambiguous.  As  it  helps  to  deepen 
and  refine  men's  moral  ideas,  so  it  opens  up 
all  sorts  of  paths  which  may  lead  him  from 
the  good."  "The  only  legitimate  enquiry  is, 
what  means  civilization  places  at  the  disposal 
of  the  will  that  has  decided  to  follow  the 
good."^ 

^Psychology  and  Common  Life,  p.  41. 

^The  Facts  of  the  Moral  Life,  pp.  322,  324. 


l6o  RATIONAL    LIVING 

Here  —  in  attention  —  the  believer  in  the 
freedom  of  the  will  v^^ill  not  doubt,  lies  the 
precise  sphere  of  that  freedom.  One  can 
choose  to  what  he  will  attend.  And  it  is  the 
idea  to  which  he  attends  that  passes  into 
action.  One's  environment,  thus,  need  not 
make  him ;  he  may  make  his  environment, 
as  every  man  of  masterly  will  shows.  Such 
wills  are  not  made  by  environment.  It  is 
time  that  we  reasserted  with  all  our  might 
flljilto^old  doctrine  that  we  can,  if  we  ought. 
The  prevalent  determinism  in  theory  (though 
it  arises  from  a  false  "psychologism,"  as 
Miinsterberg  calls  it)  ,^  is  likely  balefully  to 
afTect  practical  action.^  We  may  overdo  in 
our  social  plans  the  modern  emphasis  on 
environment,  important  as  that  is.  In  a  very 
real  sense,  let  us  be  sure,  every  one  of  us 
makes  his  own  world.  "Every  man,"  Smiles 
says,  "stamps  his  own  value  upon  himself, 
and  we  are  great  or  little  according  to  our 
will."  One's  sole  responsibility  is  to  attend, 
to  concentrate  attention  on  those  considera- 
tions and  ends  that  ought  to  prevail;  then 
they  will  prevail  and  pass  into  act.  We  need 
not  be  puppets. 

'^Psychology  and  Life,  pp.  ao  flF.,  especially  p.  23. 
*  Cf.  James,  Psychology,  Vol.  II,  pp.  574-576. 


THE   VOLUNTARISTIC    TREND   IN   PSYCHOLOGY       l6l 

Such  attention,  moreover,  lies  at  the  basis 
of  self-control,  and  self-control  is  the  chief 
differentiation  of  men  from  animals,  of  the 
sane  from  the  insane,  and  a  root-principle 
of  all  virtues.  The  animal,  as  James  says,  has 
a  "hair-trigger  constitution,"  and  action  fol- 
lows impulse  at  once ;  the  man  may  de- 
liberate, and,  keeping  his  attention  fixed 
on  some  future  good,  hold  the  present  im- 
pulse in  check.  The  insane,  too,  let  them- 
selves go  ;  the  sane  can  prove  their  complete 
sanity  only  by  keeping  themselves  in  hand, 
once  more,  through  the  direction  of  atten- 
tion. It  is  obvious,  also,  that  without  such 
self-control  no  virtue,  not  even  the  lowest 
prudence,  is  possible.  Here,  again,  there 
must  always  be  the  subordination  of  present 
impulse  to  future  good.  The  will,  then,  in 
that  power  of  attention  which  gives  self-con- 
trol, is  absolutely  vital. 

VI.   THE   PREEMINENT    INFLUENCE   OF  PRACTICAL 
INTERESTS    IN   ALL   CONSCIOUSNESS^ 

But  it  is  the  preeminent  influence  of  prac- 
tical interests  in  all  consciousness  that  testifies 
most   strongly   to  the  central   importance  of 

1  C/.  Bowne,  Theory  of  Thought  and  Knoiuledge,  pp.  370  ff. 
K 


1 62  RATIONAL    LIVING 

action.  Many  a  man  not  a  psychologist  can 
confirm  Professor  Barnes'  observation  that  a 
child's  first  question  about  a  thing  is,  What 
is  it  for?  Why?  That  is,  the  child's  interest 
is  practical  and  looks  at  once  to  action. 
Professor  James  has  brought  out  this  immense 
influence  of  the  practical  interests  with  spe- 
cial force,  and  it  is  one  of  his  most  significant 
contributions  to  psychology.  It  underlies 
many  of  the  strongest  passages  in  his  larger 
work  on  psychology,  and  is  the  germ  of 
much  of  his  later  writing. 

In  Conceiving  and  Naming  Things. —  Prac- 
tical interests  largely  determine  our  modes 
of  conceiving  and  naming  things,  '^The 
essence  of  a  thing,"  our  author  says,  "is  that 
one  of  its  properties  which  is  so  important 
for  my  interests  that  in  comparison  with  it 
I  may  neglect  the  rest."  "But  the  essence, 
the  ground  of  conception,  varies  with  the  end 
we  have  in  view."  Oil,  for  example,  "cne 
man  coxiceives  as  a  combustible,  another  as  a 
lubricator,  another  as  a  food;  the  chemist 
thinks  of  it  as  a  hydro-carbon;  the  furniture- 
maker  as  a  darkener  of  wood,"  etc.  That  is, 
"  The  only  meaning  of  essence  is  teleological 
[looking  to  ends  in  action],  and  classification 
and    conception    are    purely    teleological    weapons 


THE    VOLUNTARISTIC    TREND   IN   PSYCHOLOGY        163 

of  the  mind'''' ;  that  is,  they  have  their  sig- 
nificance as  means  to  ends  set  in  action. 
"  There  is  no  property  ABSOLUTELY  essential 
to  any  one  thing  "  In  all  this  conceiving  and 
naming  of  things,  then,  it  is  plain,  practical 
interests— -^ the  needs  of  some  course  of  con- 
duct—  are  exerting  virtually  decisive  weight.^ 

In  Reasoning. —  This  influence  of  our  in- 
terests in  the  picking  out  of  qualities  in  a 
thing  is  our  main  dependence  in  reasoning 
also.  The  exceptional  reasoner  is  the  man 
who  discerns  exactly  the  right  property  in  a 
thing,  the  precise  element  in  the  circum- 
stances, which  is  important  for  the  purpose 
in  hand ;  and  this  property  or  element  is 
much  more  likely  to  be  discovered  by  one 
who  not  only  has  numerous  interests  that 
will  lead  him  to  look  at  the  thing  from 
many  points  of  view,  but  whose  present  im- 
mediate practical  interest  tends  to  direct  his 
attention  to  the  precise  property  or  element 
now  required  for  his  aim. 

In  Our  Philosophical  Solutions. —  Even  our 
ultimate  philosophical  solutions  must  be, 
probably,  prevailingly  practical. 

The  great  influence  of  practical  interests 
in    conception    and    reasoning     implies    this. 

1  op.  dt.,  Vol.  II,  pp.  335,  333. 


1 64  RATIONAL    LIVING 

The  teleological  nature  of  these  processes 
carries  important  applications  in  some  of  the 
most  difficult  problems  of  philosophy,  both 
in  metaphysics  and  in  theory  of  knowledge. 
In  metaphysics  it  would  seem  to  mean  that 
the  only  possible  ultimate  definition  of  the 
essence  of  a  thing  must  be  in  terms  of  the 
purpose  of  the  Infinite — what  God  meant  it 
to  be  —  the  part  he  meant  it  to  play  in  the 
world.  In  other  words,  our  ultimate  meta- 
physical conceptions  must  be  expressed  in 
volitional  or  practical  terms,  in  terms  of 
action.  This  requires  a  teleological  view  of 
the  universe. 

It  is  a  precisely  similar  application  of  this 
principle  which  Dewey  makes  in  the  sphere 
of  the  theory  of  knowledge:  "The  unsatis- 
factory character,"  he  says,  "of  the  entire 
neo-lHliiite  movement  is  in  its  assumption 
that  knowledge  gives  birth  to  itself,  and  is 
capable  of  affording  its  own  justification. 
The  solution  .  .  .  reveals  itself  when  we 
conceive  of  knowledge  as  a  statement  of 
action,  that  statement  being  necessary,  more- 
over, to  the  successful  on-going  of  action."^ 
We  know  to  live,  not  live  to  know. 

And,  after  all,  if  we  are   made   for  action, 

^The  Signification  of  the  Problem  of  Knowledge,  p.   17. 


THE   VOLUNTARISTIC    TREND   IN    PSYCHOLOGY        l6S 

in  body  and  in  mind ;  if  we  are  prevailingly 
practical,  it  need  not  seem  so  strange  that 
our  philosophy,  too,  must  depend  mainly  on 
practical  considerations.  We  carry  our  only 
possible  standard  of  reality  within  us.  To  a 
being  for  whom  no  process,  physical  or 
mental,  is  normally  complete  until  it  termi- 
nates in  action,  full  philosophical  convictions 
can  hardly  be  possible  apart  from  their  bear- 
ing on  conduct. 

Moreover,  if  we  are  made  for  action, 
it  is  fitting  enough  that  those  convictions 
which  are  to  give  support  to  action  should 
be  wrought  out  in  action.  The  principle  of 
the  laboratory  method  would,  in  some  way, 
be  here  preeminently  justified.  If  even  ab- 
stract truths  need  to  be  expressed  to  be 
appreciated,  still  more  must  those  ultimate 
convictions  that  underlie  all  our  life. 

In  truth,  when  one  thinks  deeply  enough 
about  it,  he  must  see,  further,  that  for  the 
most  fundamental  problems  no  other  than  a 
practical  solution  is  possible  in  the  nature  of 
the  case.  There  can  be  no  mere  theoretical 
proof  or  disproof  of  the  trustworthiness  of 
our  faculties,  for  example, —  a  problem  about 
which  Pascal  tormented  himself.  One  could 
only   use    the    very    faculties    in    question    in 


1 66  RATIONAL     LIVING 

such  a  proof.  The  only  proof  possible  is  the 
practical  power  to  use  them.  So,  too,  one 
can  prove  the  world  a  sphere  of  rational 
thought  and  rational  action  only  by  using  his 
powers  in  it.  And  yet  these  convictions  under- 
lie every  possible  thought  and  action,  and 
we  reassert  them  in  every  moment  of  our 
life.  If  we  chose  to  deny  them,  we  should 
have  to  do  so  by  virtue  of  reasoning  that 
assumed  their  validity;  for  the  denial  in- 
volves the  assumption  that  we  can  think — 
that  things  are  thinkable. 

Into  the  very  fiber  of  certain  of  our  most 
indubitable  convictions,  even, — our  so-called 
innate  judgments — something  of  the  practical, 
Lotze  believes,  is  wrought.^  And  he  ends  his 
latest  book  on  metaphysics  with  the  assertion 
of  his  first  book,  that  ethics  must  determine 
metaphysics;  the  ought  must  determine  the  is 
and  the  must.  It  is  interesting  to  find  Paul^gllk 
and  Wundt  agreeing  in  this  insistence  of 
Lotze's.  Paulmi  says  that  morality  may  "serve 
as  a  starting-point  and  support  for  metaphys- 
ics. And  this  is  precisely  what  I  believe."^ 
Wundt  says  distinctly:  "I  think  that  we 
must    look    to    ethics   to    supply   the    corner- 

^The  Microcosmus,   Vol.  I,   p.  671. 
'A  System  of  Et'iics,  Eng.  Tr.,  p.  448. 


THE    VOLUNTARISTIC    TREND   IN    PSYCHOLOGY        167 

Stones  of  metaphysics,  of  our  final  and  com- 
prehensive view  of  the  universe."^  And  in 
this  emphasis  these  later  thinkers  are  follow- 
ing   directly    in    the    footsteps    of    Wi^'  and 


There  is  a  moral  tonic  in  the  very  atmos- 
phere of  these  men  —  Jbb#  with  his  tremen- 
dous emphasis  on  the  "practical  reason" — on 
will;  ttlflSBafc  with  his  constant  sense  of  "vo- 
cation." Paul|p»* himself  says  oi^btMt".  "The 
worth  of  a  man  depends  on  his  will,  not 
on  his  knowledge  .  .  .; — that  is  the  cardinal 
doctrine  upon  which  "l^ted^  entire  philosophy 
really  turns." ^  "In  one  word,"  says  SHfete^, 
"it  is  only  by  thorough  amelioration  of  the 
will  that  a  new  light  is  thrown  on  our  ex- 
istence and  future  destiny;  without  this  let 
me  meditate  as  much  as  I  will,  and  be  en- 
dowed with  ever  such  rare  intellectual  gifts, 
darkness  remains  within  me  and  around  me." 
"I  know  immediately  what  is  necessary  for 
me  to  know,  and  this  will  I  joyfully  and 
without  hesitation  or  sophistication  practice." 
This  message  of  ffiinis,  Carlyle,  in  his  own 
way,  catches  up  in  the  familiar  words  of  his 
Sartor  Resartus:   "Doubt  of  any  kind  cannot 

1  The  Facts  of  the  Moral  Life,  p.  VI. 
^A  System  of  Ethics,  Eng.  Tr.,  p.  200. 


1 68  RATIONAL    LIVING 

be  removed,  except  by  action.  On  which 
ground,  too,  let  him  who  gropes  painfully 
in  darkness  or  uncertain  light,  and  prays 
vehemently  that  dawn  may  ripen  into  day, 
lay  this  other  precept  well  to  heart — Do  the 
duty  which  lies  nearest  thee." 

We  may  hope  that  the  real  ground  of  this 
counsel  is  becoming  increasingly  clear  to  our 
later  thinking;  but  it  was  never  mere  shallow 
advice  to  forget  one's  questions  in  doing. 
The  ethical  attitude  and  action  were  felt  to 
be  necessary  tc  reach  the  point  of  view 
whence  a  soluti  ^as  possible.  The  signifi- 
cance of  the  situd  m  opened  itself  only  so. 
Action  brought  experience  of  some  new  value 
that  we  could  not  choose  before  with  full 
heart,  because  we  did  not  know  it.  New 
ends,  as  we  have  found  Wundt  suggesting, 
have  arisen  for  us. 

Our  own  generation,  we  have  seen,  is 
inclined  to  add  that  the  ultimate  problems 
are,  in  the  nature  of  the  case,  such  as  to 
make  a  purely  theoretical  solution  impossible. 
So  James  says:  "If  we  survey  the  field  of 
history  and  ask  what  feature  all  great  periods 
of  revival,  of  expansion  of  the  human  mind, 
display  in  common,  we  shall  find,  I  think, 
simply  this :  that  each  and  all  of  them  have 


THE    VOLUNTARISTIC   TREND   IN   PSYCHOLOGY       169 

said  to  the  human  being,  'The  inmost  nature 
of  the  reahty  is  congenial  to  powers  which 
you  possess.'"  "In  a  word,  'Son  of  man, 
stand  upon  thy  feet  and  I  will  speak  unto  thee  I ' 
is  the  only  revelation  of  truth  to  which  the 
solving  epochs  have  helped  the  disciple.  But 
that  has  been  enough  to  satisfy  the  greater 
part   of   his    rational    need."^ 

Since  doubt  is  never  a  reason  for  action,  this 
willingness  to  use  one's  powers  implies  faith, 
and  so  this  passage  of  James  becomes  practi- 
cally parallel  to  one  from  Goethe:  "The 
deepest,  nay,  the  only  theme  of  the  world's 
history  is  the  conflict  of  faith  and  unbelief. 
The  epochs  in  which  faith,  in  whatever  form 
it  may  be,  prevails,  are  the  marked  epochs  in 
human  history,  full  of  heart-stirring  memories 
and  of  substantial  gain  for  all  after  times. "^ 

It  is  noteworthy  that  the  two  books  of  the 
Bible  that  alone  may  be  called  philosophical — 
Job  and  Ecclesiastes  —  give,  also,  only  a  prac- 
tical solution.  Job's  problem  gets  no  com- 
plete theoretical  solution,  though  light  is 
thrown  upon  it;  only  in  the  completer  reve- 
lation of  what  God  is,  he  gets  patience  to 
wait.     His    vision    of    the    majesty    of    God 

^Psychology,  Vol.  II,  pp.  314,  315. 
'Quoted  by  Lecky,  Op.  cit.,  p.  229. 


1 70  RATIONAL    LIVING 

gives  faith  in  a  solution  which  as  yet  he  can- 
not see.  And  that  other  curiously  modern 
book — that  of  "the  debater  concerning  life's 
meaning"  and  value,  Ecclesiastes — has  only 
to  say  at  the  end,  after  all  attempted  and 
partial  solutions,  and  in  a  kind  of  protest 
against  any  merely  theoretical  solvent:  "And 
furthermore,  my  son,  be  admonished;  of 
making  many  books  there  is  no  end ;  and 
much  study  is  a  weariness  of  the  flesh.  This 
is  the  end  of  the  matter;  all  hath  been  heard; 
fear  God  and  keep  his  commandments ;  for 
this  is  the  whole  of  man."^  Only  the  right 
life  could  satisfy. 

I  was  interested  to  notice  how  often,  among 
Christian  university  students  in  Berlin,  the 
practical  solution  was  chosen,  in  the  emphasis 
on  Christ's  words:  "If  any  man  willeth  to  do 
his  will,  he  shall  know  of  the  teaching,  whether 
it  be  of  God,  or  whether  I  speak  from  myself." 
Christianity  is  no  ready-made  and  all-inclusive 
answer  to  curious  questions,  but  brings  only 
that  fundamental  assurance  that  suffices  for 
faith  and  work.  But  the  spirit  which  Christi- 
anity so  calls  forth  is  the  very  spirit  in  which 
one  will  most  surely  find  the  world  a  rational 
world  by  using  his  powers  in  it. 

*  Ecclesiastes,  12:12,  13. 


THE    VOLUNTARISTIC    TREND   IN    PSYCHOLOGY        171 
VII.   SOME   CURRENT   PSYCHOLOGICAL   EMPHASES 

Not  only  the  express  testimony  of  psy- 
chologists, but  current  phenomena  in  psy- 
chological literature  bear  witness  to  this 
"voluntaristic  trend."  James'  vigorous  com- 
plaint of  the  neglect  by  the  English  empiricist 
school  of  "the  perpetual  presence  of  selective 
attention,"  and  his  own  constant  emphasis 
on  it,  evince  a  strong  sense  of  the  active 
elements  in  consciousness.^  Baldwin's  like 
complaint  of  the  "extraordinary  neglect"  by 
psychologists  of  the  topic  of  imitation,  and 
the  fundamental  and  continuous  place,  which 
he,  as  well  as  Professor  Royce,  give  to  imita- 
tive activity  in  all  development,  both  of  the 
individual  and  of  society,  show  the  same 
trend.  Both  volumes  of  Baldwin's  Mental 
Development  may  be  said,  indeed,  to  be  almost 
devoted  to  the  proof  of  the  importance  of 
"conscious  imitation."  Now,  whether  Bald- 
win's precise  formulation  of  his  thesis  be 
accepted  or  not,  the  phenomena  to  which  he 
appeals  in  proof  do  show  the  tremendous  im- 
portance of  volitional  activity.  In  quite  another 
way,  Dr.  Harris'  constant  use,  in  his  Psycho- 
logical Foundations  of  Education,  of  the  principle 

^Psychology,  Vol.  I,  p.  402. 


172  RATIONAL    LIVING 

of  self-activity  as  the  ultimate  principle  in  the 
treatment  of  the  mind,  is  a  similar  emphasis. 
And  no  one  has  given  a  broader  application 
of  the  need  of  intelligently  directed  action  in 
education  than  Professor  Dewey  in  his  The 
School  and  Society. 

Many  other  names  might  be  added  to  the 
list,  but  perhaps  no  one  has  more  strongly  or 
clearly  emphasized  the  central  importance  of 
the  will  than  Professor  Miinsterberg  in  his 
recent  book  on  Psychology  and  Life ^  in  which,  in 
close  sympathy  with  IBlB:^  man's  whole  life  is 
defined  in  terms  of  the  will.  The  range  of  his 
thought  requires  a  long  quotation,  and  may 
serve,  also,  as  a  kind  of  summary  of  the  preced- 
ing discussion.  "Far  from  allowing  psychol- 
ogy," he  says,  "to  doubt  whether  the  real  life 
has  duties,  we  must  understand  that  there  is  no 
psychology,  no  science,  no  thought,  no  doubt, 
which  does  not,  by  its  very  appearance,  sol- 
emnly acknowledge  that  it  is  the  child  of 
duties.  Psychology  may  dissolve  our  will  and 
our  personality  and  our  freedom,  and  it  is 
constrained  by  duty  to  do  so,  but  it  must 
not  forget  that  it  speaks  only  of  that  will  and 
that  personality  which  are  by  metamorphosis 
substituted  for  the  personality  and  the  will  of 
real  life,   and  that  it   is  this  real  personality 


THE   VOLUNTARISTIC   TREND   IN    PSYCHOLOGY       1 73 

and  its  free  will  which  create  psychology  in 
the  service  of  its  ends  and  aims  and  ideals." 

"In  the  real  life  we  are  willing  subjects 
whose  reality  is  given  in  our  will  attitudes, 
in  our  liking  and  disliking,  loving  and  hating, 
affirming  and  denying,  agreeing  and  fighting ; 
and,  as  these  attitudes  overlap  and  bind  one 
another,  this  willing  personality  has  unity. 
We  know  ourselves  by  feeling  ourselves  as 
those  willing  subjects;  we  do  not  perceive 
that  will  in  ourselves;  we  will  it."  "History 
speaks  only  of  those  will  acts  which  are  ac- 
knowledged as  merely  individual.  We  know 
other  will  acts  in  ourselves  which  we  will 
with  an  over-individual  meaning,  those  atti- 
tudes we  take  when  we  feel  ourselves  beyond 
the  domain  of  our  purely  personal  wishes." 
"If  the  system  of  our  individual  will  acts  is 
interpreted  and  connected  in  the  historical 
sciences,  the  system  of  our  over-individual 
will  acts  is  interpreted  and  connected  in  the 
normative  sciences,  logic,  aesthetics,  ethics, 
and  philosophy  of  religion.  Logic  treats  of 
the  over-individual  will  acts  of  affirming  the 
world,  aesthetics,  of  those  of  appreciating  the 
world,  religion,  of  those  of  transcending  the 
world,  ethics,  of  those  of  acting  for  the 
world."    "On    the    basis   of    these    normative 


174  RATIONAL    LIVING 

sciences,  the  idealistic  philosophy  has  to  build 
up  its  metaphysical  system  which  may  con- 
nect the  disconnected  will  attitudes  of  our 
ethical,  ssthetical,  religious  and  logical  duties 
in  one  ideal  dome  of  thoughts."^  "The  world 
we  will,"  thus  Professor  Miinsterberg  says, 
"is  the  reality;  the  world  we  perceive  is  the 
deduced,  and  therefore  unreal  system." 

Professor  Dewey's  fundamental  principle 
"that  society,  whether  from  the  side  of  associa- 
tion (sociology)  or  of  individualization  (psy- 
chology) ,  is  to  be  interpreted  with  reference  to 
active  interests  or  organized  interactions,  not 
with  reference  to  thoughts,  intellectual  con- 
tents," shows  at  least  a  closely  related  view. 
Now  the  very  possibility  of  such  a  definition 
of  life  in  terms  of  will,  whether  one  wholly 
accepts  it  or  not,  is  an  impressive  proof  of 
the  central  importance  of  will. 

The  facts  which  have  been  passed  in 
review  give  ample  ground  for  the  "volun- 
taristic  trend"  in  psychology,  and  for  belief 
in  the  central  importance  of  will  and  action : 
—  impulse  to  action  the  deepest  thing  in  us ; 
every  experience,  bodily  and  mental,  tending 
to  terminate  in  action ;  expression  required 
for    the    sake    of    thought    and    feeling;    the 

^Psychology  and  Life,  pp.  23-28.     (Abridged.) 


THE    VOLUNTARISTIC    TREND   IN    PSYCHOLOGY        175 

decisive  power  of  the  will  in  attention  ;  the 
predominant  influence  of  practical  interests 
in  consciousness ;  the  fact  that  even  our 
philosophical  solutions  are  prevailingly  practi- 
cal;  current  phenomena  in  psychological 
literature ;  and  especially  the  possibility  of 
defining  the  whole  of  man's  life  in  terms  of 
will.  Matthew  Arnold  might  well  say  that 
conduct  vs^as  three-fourths  of  life. 

Hence  we  may  not  hope  to  come  to  clear 
and  comprehensive  views  of  the  rational  man- 
agement of  life  without  careful  recognition 
of  these  facts  now  passed  in  review, —  of  the 
importance  of  will  and  action.  Manifestly, 
these  facts  touch  upon  our  character,  our 
happiness,  our  influence,  at  every  point. 
What  definite  suggestions,  now,  for  rational 
and  ethical  and  spiritual  living  has  this  third 
great  insistence  of  modern  psychology?  Many 
practical  inferences  have  been  already  im- 
plied in  setting  forth  the  psychological  facts; 
but  there  are  certain  counsels  which  deserve 
more  precise  statement. 


CHAPTER  X 

THE   CENTRAL  IMPORTANCE   OF   miL  AND  ACTION^ 
SUGGESTIONS   FOR   LIFING 

I.    THE   ENORMOUS    PLACE   OF    WILL   AND 
ACTION    IN    LIFE 

In  the  first  place,  these  facts  give  a  new 
sense  of  the  enormous  place  of  will  in  life, 
and  of  the  need  of  definite  will-training.  "If," 
says  that  psychologist  who  has  done  more 
than  any  other  to  make  psychology  vital, 
"the  'searching  of  our  heart  and  reins'  be 
the  purpose  of  this  human  drama,  then  what 
is  sought  seems  to  be  what  eflort  we  can 
make.  He  who  can  make  none  is  but  a 
shadow;  he  who  can  make  much  is  a  hero." 
"And  the  effort  which  he  is  able  to  put 
forth  to  hold  himself  erect  and  keep  his 
heart  unshaken  is  the  direct  measure  of  his 
worth  and  function  in  the  game  of  human 
life."^  Life  has  its  reality,  its  meaning,  its 
interest,  its  end,  in  the  will-attitudes  which  we 
take.   We   have    already  seen   how   Miinster- 

'James,  Psychology,  Vol.  II,  p.  578. 
(176) 


SUGGESTIONS   FROM    IMPORTANCE   OF  ACTION        1 77 

berg  urges  the  prime  significance  of  the  will- 
attitudes.  We  cannot  ignore  this  if  we  care 
to  count  at  all.  We  must  will,  not  merely 
think  or  feel.  Even  the  "ills  of  life,"  Mar- 
tineau  reminds  us,  "are  not  here  on  their 
own  account,  but  are  as  a  divine  challenge 
and  God -like  wrestling  in  the  night  with 
our  too  reluctant  wills."  Life  fails  of  its 
purpose  for  us,  if  it  does  not  call  out  the 
heroic  will. 

The  training  of  will  becomes,  thus,  the 
most  vital  of  all  problems.  "But  the  education 
of  the  will,"  Lecky  believes, — "the  power  of 
breasting  the  current  of  the  desires,  and 
doing  for  long  periods  what  is  distasteful  and 
painful  —  is  much  less  cultivated  than  in  some 
periods  of  the  past."  If  Lecky's  judgment  is 
correct  here,  the  fact  is,  nevertheless,  quite 
inconsistent  with  the  present  psychological 
emphasis,  and  most  unfortunate  as  well ;  for, 
as  Lecky  himself  says,  "nothing  which  is 
learned  in  youth  is  so  really  valuable  as  the 
power  and  the  habit  of  self-restraint,  of  self- 
sacrifice,  of  energetic,  continuous  and  con- 
centrated effort."^ 

And  strength  of  will  bears  not  only  upon 
character,  but  upon  happiness  and  influence 

*  op.  cit.,  pp.  246,  251. 
L 


1 78  RATIONAL    LIVING 

as  well.  Will-weakening  indulgences,  there- 
fore, sap  the  worth  of  life  at  all  points.  That 
strength  of  will  bears  upon  character^  needs 
no  argument.  Character  lies  preeminently  in 
the  sphere  of  the  will ;  he  who  would  achieve 
much  in  the  moral  life  must  be  capable  of 
mighty  purposes  and  mighty  endeavors.  The 
place  of  will  in  influence  is  hardly  less  obvious. 
Only  he  who  can  set  his  goal  and  steadily 
and  firmly  pursue  it  can  hope  to  count 
greatly  with  others. 

A  large  part,  even  of  our  own  happiness^ 
is  to  be  found  in  just  this  vigorous  exercise 
of  our  wills.  Practically  all  our  sports  and 
games,  it  is  worth  noting,  are  simply  devices 
for  setting  up  obstacles  for  the  fun  of  get- 
ting over  them.  "Play  is  the  child  of  work," 
Wundt  says.  We  are  made  for  action,  and 
we  cannot  be  even  happy  in  constant  inac- 
tivity.^ It  is  an  interesting  testimony  that 
Walter  Wellman  bears  concerning  his  journey 
toward  the  north  pole,  with  the  thermometer 
from  forty  to  forty-eight  degrees  below  zero  : 
"It  was  glorious  thus  to  feel  one's  strength, 
to  fear  nothing  in  the  way  of  hardship  or 
exertion,  to  carry  a  consciousness  of  superi- 
ority to    all    the    obstacles    which    nature    has 

*  C/.  Paulsen,  System  of  Ethics,  pp.  258  ff. 


SUGGESTIONS   FROM   IMPORTANCE   OF  ACTION        1 79 

placed  in  our  path.    I  was  never  happier  than 
in  these  hard  days." 

Lotze  shows,  in  a  thoughtful  passage,  how 
surely  this  powerful  putting  forth  of  the  will 
in  struggle  and  wide  endeavor  contributes  to 
the  highest  happiness:  "By  the  opposition 
which  the  natural  course  of  things  offers  to 
a  too  easy  satisfaction  of  natural  impulses ; 
by  the  labor  to  which  man  is  compelled,  and 
in  the  prosecution  of  which  he  acquires 
knowledge  of,  and  power  over,  things  in  the 
most  various  relations;  finally,  by  misfortune 
itself  and  the  manifold  painful  efforts  which 
he  has  to  make  under  the  pressure  of  the 
gradually  multiplying  relations  of  life :  by  all 
this  there  is  both  opened  before  him  a  wider 
horizon  of  varied  enjoyment,  and  also  there 
becomes  clear  to  him,  for  the  first  time,  the 
inexhaustible  significance  of  moral  Ideas 
which  seem  to  receive  an  accession  of  intrin- 
sic worth  with  every  new  relation  to  which 
their  regulating  and  organizing  influence  is 
extended."^  Wundt  distinctly  contrasts  man 
with  the  animals  in  two  respects,  both  of 
which  mean  strong  emphasis  on  action.  "In 
the  case  of  man,  on  the  other  hand,  there 
are    two    principal   factors    at  work   to    make 

^  The  Microcosmus,  Vol.  II,  p.  78. 


l80  RATIONAL    LIVING 

both  individual  and  social  life  immeasurably 
richer  and  more  complex.  The  one  is  to  be 
found  in  the  free  exercise  of  will;  the  other 
in  that  comprehensive  prevision^  that  consider- 
ation of  past  and  future  in  their  bearings 
upon  the  present,  of  which  man  alone  is 
capable."  ^ 


II.    THE    FUNDAMENTAL   CHARACTER  OF 
SELF-CONTROL 

This  emphasis  on  will  and  action  means, 
moreover,  emphasis  on  self-control  as  a  prime 
condition  of  character  and  of  happiness  and 
of  influence.  If  will  has,  m  truth,  anything 
like  the  place  our  discussion  has  indicated,  if 
self-control  is  the  chief  differentiation  of  the 
human  and  sane  life  from  the  animal  and 
insane  life,  and  a  root-principle  of  all  virtues, 
then  the  positive  conditions  of  self-control 
are  at  the  same  time  primary  elements  in  the 
right,  the  happy,  and  the  influential  life. 

Self-  control  Fundamental  to  a  Moral  and 
Religious  Character. — That  self-control  is  fun- 
damental to  character,  few  probably  would 
deny.  It  may  not  be  without  value,  however, 
to   point  out   that   the   same   condition   holds 

^  op.  cit.,  p.  131. 


SUGGESTIONS   FROM    IMPORTANCE    OF  ACTION        l8l 

for  the  religious  life.  The  hysterical  every- 
where— most  of  all,  we  may  be  sure,  in 
the  religious  life — is  fundamentally  at  fault, 
though,  curiously  enough,  it  is  here  often  not 
only  excused  but  even  urged  as  a  particularly 
high  attainment.  We  may  be  sure  such  rea- 
soning is  seriously  astray,  though  the  mistake 
arises  naturally  enough.  It  substitutes  a 
heathen  idea  of  inspiration  for  the  Chris- 
tian— a  being  swept  away  out  of  our  faculties 
for  that  high  and  complete  surrender  of  our- 
selves to  God  in  which,  in  truth,  self-control 
is  highest  and  most  completely  positive.  No 
attitude  is  ethical,  and  therefore  religious, 
into  which  the  will  does  not  positively  enter, 
in  which  the  man  does  not  have  himself  in 
hand ;  and  this  remains  true  however  religious 
a  man  may  believe  his  ecstacy  to  be.  Many 
sad  blots  in  the  history  of  religion  would  have 
been  impossible,  if  men  had  kept  this  prin- 
ciple clearly  in  mind.  In  this  sense,  President 
Jordan's  protest  against  "revivals  in  which 
men  lose  their  reason  and  self-control,"  was 
wholly  justified.  A  genuine  revival  of  religion 
is  a  revival  of  the  highest  reason  and  the  most 
strenuous  self-control  (though  with  strong 
emotion) ,  and  that  not  merely  as  restraints 
but  as  positive  motives. 


1 82  RATIONAL    LIVING 

Self-control  Fundamental  to  Happiness. — It  is, 
perhaps,  still  less  obvious  that  self-control  is 
fundamental  to  happiness,  though  this  I 
believe  to  be  equally  true.  For  unless  one  is 
prepared  to  assert  outright  that  the  com- 
pletest  happiness  for  man  lies  in  a  going  back 
to  the  animal,  and  in  a  cultivation  of  insanity, 
he  can  hardly  doubt  that  self-control  is  neces- 
sary to  the  completest  happiness,  even  on  the 
lower  plane  of  the  appetites  and  passions.  It 
is  worthy  of  note  that  Aristippus,  the  Cyrenaic, 
the  avowed  sum  of  whose  philosophy  was  to 
extract  the  utmost  of  pleasure  out  of  each 
passing  moment,  was  true  enough,  not  only 
to  his  Socratic  teaching,  but  to  the  facts,  to 
affirm  that  this  getting  the  utmost  pleasure 
required,  at  the  very  moment  of  its  tasting, 
a  self-mastery.  "I  hold,"  he  said,  "I  am  not 
held;"  that  is,  I  master  my  pleasures;  my 
pleasures  do  not  master  me.^  This  principle 
of  Aristippus  seems  to  me  to  be  a  piece  of 
accurate  psychological  observation.  We  are 
so  made  that  we  cannot  get  the  most  and 
best,  even  upon  the  lowest  planes,  without 
keeping  ourselves  in  hand,  without  a  perme- 
ating element  of  self-mastery;  we  cannot 
simply  let  ourselves  go. 

^Cf.  Zeller,  Socrates  and  the  Socratic  Schools,  pp.  366,  361,  367. 


SUGGESTIONS    FROM    IMPORTANCE    OF   ACTION        1 83 

And  this  self-mastery  must  not  be  a  mere 
restraint,  holding  ourselves  back;  it  must  be 
a  positive  and  definite  making  the  lower  serve 
the  higher.  Nor  can  it  be  counterfeited  for 
the  mere  sake  of  the  greater  pleasure;  the 
right  attitude  must  be  there,  to  taste  the 
pleasure's  full  sweetness.  The  pathway  to  the 
largest  happiness  is  that  of  true  modesty, 
which  lies,  as  one  of  our  philosophers  has 
said,  neither  in  disparagement  of  nature,  nor 
in  exaltation  of  nature,  whether  as  impas- 
sioned voluptuousness  or  as  coarse  realism, 
but  in  a  middle  path  of  real  delicacy  of  feeling 
which  shows  a  self-control  born  of  a  deep 
sense  of  the  worth  of  personality  and  the 
individual  soul. 

We  are  not  satisfied  that  eating,  for  ex- 
ample, should  be  "merely  a  matter  of 
appeasing  appetite."  The  half  sense  of 
shame  with  which  one  on  a  railway  train 
takes  down  his  lunch-box  and  proceeds  to 
devour  its  contents  alone,  bears  witness  to 
something  more  than  mere  lack  of  compan- 
ionship. Such  eating,  it  half  seems  to  us, 
ought  to  be  done  behind  the  door  as  a  neces- 
sary, indeed,  but  rather  unseemly  process. 
We  do  not  believe  that  "ugly  and  soulless 
eagerness"  in  eating  and  drinking  bring  the 


1 84  RATIONAL    LIVING 

fullest  enjoyment  of  even  those  processes 
themselves.  We  crave  the  aesthetic  accom- 
paniments of  the  ordered  meal,  or  the  social 
delights  of  the  companionship  of  others,  or 
some  other  evidence  of  the  presence  of  the 
higher,  not  merely  as  added  elements  of 
pleasure,  but  as  necessary,  that  even  the  eating 
and  drinking  themselves  may  be  most  enjoyed. 
The  aesthetic  may  be  so  violated  as  not  simply 
to  offend  our  taste  but  as  positively  to  take 
av^ay  all  appetite.  The  lower  must  serve  the 
higher.  Man  is  a  unity;  he  cannot  deny  this 
unity  in  any  part  and  not  suffer  even  in  that 
part;  he  must  somehow  learn  to  spiritualize 
the  physical  even  for  the  sake  of  the  physical. 
"Hence,"  Herrmann  can  say,  "the  very  stern- 
ness of  duty  which  hurts  the  feelings  of  the 
natural  man,  becomes  to  the  Christian  a 
promise  of  hidden  riches,  which  await  him 
in  endless  profusion." 

Browning's  ideal  is  a  true  one : 

"  Let  us  not  always  say, 
'  Spite  of  this  flesh  to-day 
I  strove,  made  head,  gained  ground  upon  the  whole.* 
As  the  bird  wings  and  sings, 
Let  us  cry,   'All  good  things 
Are   ours,    nor   soul    helps    flesh   more,    now,    than    flesh 
helps    soul!'" 


SUGGESTIONS   FROM    IMPORTANCE    OF   ACTION        1 85 

There  is,  indeed,  a  temporary  sense  of  power 
and  a  kind  of  mad  ecstasy,  as  Hawthorne  has 
noted,  in  the  absence  of  all  scruple,  in  throw- 
ing to  the  winds  all  self-control.  "For  guilt," 
he  says,  "has  its  moment  of  rapture,  too.  The 
foremost  result  of  a  broken  law  is  ever  an 
ecstatic  sense  of  freedom.  And  thus  [for  Mir- 
iam and  Donatello]  there  exhaled  upward  (out 
of  their  dark  sympathy,  at  the  base  of  which 
lay  a  human  corpse)  a  bliss,  or  an  insanity, 
which  the  unhappy  pair  imagined  to  be  well 
worth  the  sleepy  innocence  that  was  forever 
lost  to  them.  .  .  .  Forevermore  cemented 
with  his  blood."  It  was  this  power  of  insanity, 
this  ecstasy  of  overleaping  all  bounds,  that 
Schlegel  mistook  for  reality  and  tried  to  make 
the  basis  of  a  philosophy  for  the  Romanticists 
in  his  "standpoint  of  irony";  but  it  is  only 
the  power  and  the  joy  of  madness,  none  the 
less.  It  is  the  power  and  the  joy  which  a 
man  has  when  all  self-control  is  gone.  Self- 
control,  then,  we  may  believe,  in  the  posi- 
tive sense  of  a  subordination  of  the  lower  to 
the  higher,  is  necessary  to  happiness  as  well 
as  to  character. 

Self -Control  Fundamental  to  Influence. — Posi- 
tive self-control  is  as  necessary  to  the  highest 
influence   as    to    character  and   happiness.    A 


l86  RATIONAL     LIVING 

man  gives  small  promise  of  mastery  of  other 
forces  and  other  men  who  has  not  mastered 
himself.  The  leader  must  show  reserved  power, 
must  make  it  plain  that  he  has  himself  in 
hand,  if  he  is  to  secure  confidence.  Lack  of 
self-control  reveals  itself  in  subtle  ways,  and 
nothing  snaps  so  surely  the  tie  of  sympathy 
and  faith  between  leader  and  led.  This  is 
true  even  where,  from  a  mistaken  point  of 
view,  the  lack  of  self-control  is  excused  or 
even  justified  and  gloried  in  by  a  man's 
followers.  Even  against  their  will  their  con- 
fidence is  broken.  To  no  leader  of  men  is 
the  highest  and  finest  self-control  so  vital  as 
to  the  religious  leader.  He  denies  his  very 
calling  when  he  fails  here.  He  may  well 
covet  the  keenest  perception  at  this  point. 
The  fag  and  strain  which  hinder  any  leader- 
ship are  well  nigh  fatal  for  him.  There  must 
be  no  hint  or  suspicion  of  the  strained  and 
the  hysterical  in  him  or  in  his  speaking,  if  he 
wishes  to  count  to  his  utmost.  Religion,  let 
us  be  sure  that  men  see,  is  life  —  the  broadest, 
largest,  deepest,  richest  life.  Bathed  in  it, 
permeated  with  it,  we  are  to  speak  out  of  it 
with  an  enthusiasm  and  joy  that  need  no 
exaggeration  and  allow  no  belittling. 

Self -Control    Positive,     not     Negative. —  Re- 


SUGGESTIONS   FROM   IMPORTANCE   OF  ACTION        1 87 

membering  that  the  great  battlefield  of  the 
will  is  in  attention,  and  that  the  chief  physi- 
cal condition  of  attention  is  surplus  nervous 
energy;  and  keeping  in  mind  the  general 
intellectual  and  emotional  helps  and  hin- 
drances to  normal  will-action  already  dis- 
cussed, it  is  worth  while,  here,  to  emphasize 
the  fact  already  mentioned,  that  self-control 
—  in  spite  of  its  name  —  to  be  most  effective 
must  be  positive,  not  negative. 

As  to  control  of  emotions,  it  may  be  said 
at  once  that  we  have  to  depend  chiefly  on 
an  indirect  control  of  feeling  through  either 
attention  or  action.  Over  feeling  itself  we 
have  no  direct  power ;  it  arises  involuntarily 
in  the  presence  of  its  exciting  object;  but 
we  can  determine  to  what  objects  we  will 
attend.  We  can  thus  train  our  thinking 
through  the  will  in  attention,  and  our  think- 
ing finally  determines  our  feeling.  So,  too, 
we  can  act  in  the  line  of  the  feelings  we 
would  have,  and  the  reflex  efifect  of  the  per- 
sistent action  on  the  emotion  can  be  quite 
surely  counted  on.  The  mien  and  attitude 
and  action  of  cheerfulness  and  courage  will 
go  far  in  producing  the  mood  of  cheer  and 
courage. 

But  these  methods  of  control  of  emotion 


1 88  RATIONAL    LIVING 

by  attention  in  thinking  and  by  action  are 
positive,  as  they  ought  to  be  ;  for,  as  Hoff- 
ding  says,  "let  it  not  be  forgotten  that  self- 
control,  considered  as  a  negative  virtue,  is  a 
psychological  impossibility.  It  is  too  often 
left  out  of  sight  in  ethics  that  one  impulse 
can  only  be  displaced  by  another."^  So  Royce 
says  still  more  broadly:  "The  rule  of  inhibi- 
tion as  regards  the  before-mentioned  hie- 
rarchy of  the  nervous  centers,  seems  to  be 
that  the  higher  a  given  function  is,  the  more 
numerous  are  the  inhibitory  influences  that  it  ex- 
ercises over  loiver  centers.''"'  "Whenever  we  can 
get  higher  functions  of  a  positive  sort  estab- 
lished, v^^e  thereby  train  inhibitory  tenden- 
cies." "  You  teach  a  man  to  control  or  restrain 
himself  as  soon  as  you  teach  him  what  to  do  in 
a  positive  sense.  Healthy  activity  includes  self- 
restraint,  or  inhibition,  as  one  of  its  elements. 
You  in  vain  teach,  then,  self-control,  unless  you 
teach  much  more  than  self-control.''''  This  is  the 
reason  for  one  of  the  great  weaknesses,  it 
may  be  noticed  in  passing,  of  much  preach- 
ing and  moral  instruction — it  is  mere  ex- 
hortation, giving  no  direct  suggestion  of 
positive    achievement.     Royce    adds,    sugges- 

1  The   Laiv    of  Relati'vity   in   Ethics,    International   Journal  of 
Ethics,  Vol.  I,  pp.  30  ff. 


SUGGESTIONS   FROM   IMPORTANCE    OF   ACTION        189 

tlvely,  of  the  danger  of  mere  negative  inhibi- 
tion:  "In  persons  of  morbidly  conscientious 
life,  such  inhibitory  phenomena  may  easily 
get  an  inconvenient,  and  sometimes  do  get 
a  dangerous  intensity.  The  result  is,  then, 
a  fearful,  cowardly,  helpless  attitude  toward 
life  —  an  attitude  which  defeats  its  own  aim 
and  renders  the  sufiferer  not,  as  he  intends 
to  be,  ^good,'  but  a  positive  nuisance."^ 

The  true  psychological  method,  therefore, 
is  always  positive,  not  merely  negatively  fight- 
ing a  thought,  trying  to  v/ithhold  attention 
from  it  (which  only  holds  it  the  more 
certainly  in  mind) ,  but  positively  turning 
the  attention  to  some  other  thought  —  not 
refusing  to  attend  to  this,  but  positively 
attending  to  something  else.  The  law  is  very 
simple.  One  cannot  get  an  empty  mind,  and, 
on  the  other  hand,  one  cannot  think  with 
concentrated  attention  of  two  thoughts  at  the 
same  time.  This  is  the  principle  of  expelling 
the  evil  by  the  good,  that  so  fills  the  New 
Testament.  "Humanity,"  as  Ecce  Homo  dis- 
cerns, "changed  from  a  restraint  to  a  motive" 
— "the  enthusiasm  for  humanity."  It  is  the 
"thou  shalt"  set  over  against  the  "thou  shalt 
not."    And    Spinoza   only   caught    up    Paul's 

1  op.  cii.,  pp.  74,  76,  77. 


I  go  RATIONAL     LIVING 

principle  of  Christian  liberty,  as  he  lays  it 
down  for  the  Galatians,  when  he  wrote,  as 
Professor  James  phrases  him:  "Anything 
that  a  man  can  avoid  under  the  notion  that 
it  is  bad,  he  may  also  avoid  under  the  notion 
that  something  else  is  good.  He  who  habit- 
ually acts  under  the  negative  notion,  the 
notion  of  the  bad,  is  called  a  slave  by  Spinoza. 
To  him  who  acts  habitually  under  the  notion 
of  good,  he  gives  the  name  of  freeman." 
We  are  to  aspire  to  the  good  as  the  best 
possible  way  of  fighting  evil.  It  is  the  busi- 
ness of  the  spiritual  leader  to  make  Christian 
freemen. 

No  modern  statement  of  this  principle 
has  approached  in  extent  of  influence  and 
in  practical  effectiveness  Dr.  Chalmers'  ser- 
mon on  "  The  Expulsive  Power  of  a  New 
Affection."  Its  felicitous  title  has  become  a 
commonplace  among  preachers ;  but  its  cen- 
tral thought  deserves  such  attention  and  em- 
phasis as  it  has  seldom  yet  received.  It  means, 
put  positives  for  negatives;  don't  "don't"; 
covet  earnestly  the  best  gifts.  Making  self- 
cojitrol  positive  involves,  then,  two  things: 
(i)  keeping  the  attention  fixed  on  the  goods, 
the  higher  considerations,  the  future  better 
things  that  ought  to  prevail ;  and  (2)   thereby 


SUGGESTIONS    FROM    IMPORTANCE    OF  ACTION        IQI 

everywhere  making  the  lower  serve  the 
higher.  The  problem  of  character  becomes, 
thus,  ultimately  a  problem  of  fixing  attention. 

What,  now,  are  the  conditions  of  keeping 
attention  fixed  on  any  thought?  Voluntary 
attention  to  an  absolutely  identical  object,  it 
should  be  realized,  is  possible  even  for  an 
adult  for  but  the  briefest  time. 

The  object  must  continually  change  for  us,  if 
it  is  to  hold  attention.  The  secret  of  fixing 
attention  on  an  object,  therefore,  lies  in  dis- 
cerning its  different  aspects  and  relations. 
That  a  thought  may  keep  its  power  with  us, 
it  must  be  frequently  re-shaped,  thought 
again  in  new  form  and  new  relations  and  new 
applications.  There  must  be  no  unthought 
phrases.  This  power  of  discerning  manifold 
aspects  and  relations  of  a  thing  goes  back 
again  to  the  possession  of  a  large  circle  of  in- 
terests^ and  gives  a  fundamental  reason  why 
any  high  leader  of  men  should  be  a  man  of 
the  broadest  training  and  interests.  If  he  is 
to  hold  the  attention  of  others  to  high  themes 
and  great  causes,  he  must  be  able  to  present 
them  freshly  from  many  points  of  view,  in 
varied  aspects,  with  multiplied  application  and 
illustration.  The  problem  of  self-control,  of 
all  righteousness,  and  of  all  spiritual  influence, 


192  RATIONAL    LIVING 

therefore,  is  not  that  of  a  mere  heavy  tug  of 
the  will.  Self-control  depends  on  attention, 
and  attention  has  its  chief  support  in  strong 
and  many-sided  interest.  This  means  that  the 
great  secret  of  all  living  is  the  persistent  staying 
in  the  presence  of  the  best  —  the  great  facts,  the 
great  truths,  the  great  personalities,  the  one 
great  Person,  Christ.  We  come  into  the  ab- 
sorbing, passionate,  and  deepening  interest  in 
all  things  of  value  only  so,  and  it  is  this 
persistent,  passionate  interest  in  the  best  that 
determines,  ultimately,  our  significance  and 
efficiency  in  life. 

III.    OBJECTIVITY  A  PRIME    CONDITION  OF   CHARAC- 
TER,  AND   HAPPINESS,   AND    INFLUENCE 

This  brings  us  at  once  to  a  third  great 
practical  inference  from  psychology's  empha- 
sis on  will  and  action.  If  we  are  made  for 
action,  and  no  experience  is  normally  com- 
pleted until  it  issues  in  action,  then  the 
normal  mood,  it  would  seem,  must  be  the 
mood  of  activity,  of  work,  not  of  passivity,  of 
brooding  —  objectivity,  not  subjectivity  or 
introspection. 

No  Activity  Is  at  Its  Best  When  the  Attention 
Is  Centered  on  the  Self. — One  must  lose  himself 


SUGGESTIONS   FROM   IMPORTANCE   OF  ACTION        I93 

in  the  object.  Many  illustrations  will  occur 
to  one.  One  will  best  hit  the  mark  when  he 
is  thinking  of  //,  not  of  how  he  is  performing 
the  action.  The  fundamental  condition  in 
art-appreciation,  Schopenhauer  insists,  is  that 
one  lose  himself  in  the  art-object.  One  of 
the  most  interesting  things  at  the  Dresden 
Gallery,  after  seeing  Raphael's  great  picture 
of  the  Sistine  Madonna  oneself,  is  watching 
others  see  it.  It  is  so  evident  that  practically 
all  come  to  the  picture,  saying  to  themselves: 
"This  is  one  of  the  greatest  pictures  in  the 
world ;  am  I  now  having  the  appropriate  emo- 
tions in  the  presence  of  this  great  picture?" 
And  so  long  as  one  is  wondering  if  he  is 
having  the  appropriate  emotions,  the  picture 
itself  gets  no  fair  chance  at  one.  So,  too,  one 
can  never  be  at  his  best  in  the  company  of 
those  with  whom  he  feels  himself  still  on 
probation.  Only  those  friends  see  one's  best 
with  whom  one  can  quite  forget  himself  in  his 
theme.  Health,  itself,  suffers  when  one  thinks 
too  much  about  it.  Health,  rather,  requires 
something  of  interest  to  which  one  can  turn 
and  forget  himself.  One  may,  perhaps,  sum 
up  this  need  of  the  objective  mood  in  the 
immortal  rhyme  that  Mrs.  Wiggin  has  made 
familiar  to  us: 

M 


194  RATIONAL    LIVING 

"  The  centipede  was  happy  quite, 
Until  the  frog  for  fun, 
Said  '  Pray,  which  leg  comes  after  which?* 
Which  wrought  his  mind  to  such  a  pitch, 
He  lay  distracted  in  a  ditch, 
Considering  how  to  run." 

It  is  true  of  the  two  best  things  in  the 
world  —  happiness  and  character — for  the  very 
reason  that  both  are  conditions  of  the  self, 
that  they  are  best  found  by  not  seeking  them 
directly.  And  Bradley's  sneer  — sharp  as  it  is 
— at  John  Stuart  Mill  for  holding  to  a  summum 
bonum  that  could  only  be  hit  by  not  aiming  at 
it,  was  itself  beside  the  mark.  How  often  our 
elaborate  preparations  for  a  good  time  quite 
fail;  and  how  often,  on  the  other  hand,  our 
good  time  comes  on  us  unawares ;  but  when 
we  study  its  conditions  and  think  we  have  dis- 
covered its  secret,  the  repetition  soon  unde- 
ceives us.  Both  the  inveterate  pleasure-seeker, 
and  many  of  those  most  in  earnest  for  char- 
acter have  made  the  same  mistake  here — they 
concentrate  their  attention  too  much  upon 
themselves.  Both  character  and  happiness 
require  objectivity. 

There  are  two  contrasted  theories  of 
growth  in  character,  it  has  been  pointed  out — 
one,  "the  realism  of  self -development" — the 


SUGGESTIONS   FROM    IMPORTANCE    OF  ACTION        1 95 

Other,  "the  idealism  of  work."  The  one  looks 
at  everything  to  discover  its  bearing  on  the 
development  of  self;  the  other  loses  itself 
in  a  great  work.  The  theory  of  self-develop- 
ment as  the  great  end  of  life,  Lotze  has  said, 
is  fundamentally  deficient  in  submission  and 
self-sacrifice;  and  it  assuredly  cannot  escape 
a  certain  repulsiveness  even  when  adopted 
in  great  earnestness  by  a  man  of  such  will 
and  genius  as  Goethe.  One  may  seek  his 
moral  and  spiritual  salvation  in  real  selfish- 
ness. But  more  than  this  is  true.  If  action  is 
of  central  importance,  the  theory  is  wrongly 
based  psychologically.  One  cannot  win  either 
the  highest  character  or  the  largest  happiness, 
with  self  so  continually  in  mind.  It  is  not 
even  enough  to  take  on  abundance  of  work 
as  moral  exercise  or  discipline,  or  as  a  help 
to  happiness,  so  long  as  self  remains  con- 
tinually in  mind.  We  need  not  only  work, 
but  the  mood  of  work;  not  only  reaction  on 
an  object,  but  objectivity ;  the  work  must  be 
great  enough  and  pressing  enough  for  us  to 
lose  ourselves  in  It.  The  action  itself  reaches 
its  perfection  only  so;  and  that  means  that 
thought  and  purpose  and  feeling,  also,  come 
to  their  perfection  only  so.  Selfishness — even 
of  the  most  exalted  type — and  introspection. 


196  RATIONAL    LIVING 

in  their  very  nature,  spoil  the  mood  of  w^ork, 
and  make  impossible  the  best  attainment  in 
character  and   the  highest  happiness. 

One  other  consideration  leads  to  the 
same  insistence  upon  objectivity  as  an  essen- 
tial condition  of  both  character  and  happi- 
ness. Love  is  both  the  all-inclusive  virtue, 
and  the  greatest  source  of  happiness.  Neither 
character,  then,  nor  happiness  can  be  self- 
centered  ;  for  genuine  love  lives  in  its  object, 
forgets  itself  in  that,  is  wholly  objective.  Its 
mood,  therefore,  is  that  of  the  most  perfect 
work.  "By  throwing  their  whole  nature  into 
the  interests  of  others,"  Lecky  justly  says, 
"men  most  effectually  escape  the  melancholy 
of  introspection;  the  horizon  of  life  is  en- 
larged ;  the  development  of  the  moral  and 
sympathetic   feelings  chases  egotistic  cares."  ^ 

It  is  true  that  this  line  of  thought  tends 
to  reverse  much  of  ordinary  thought  as  to 
the  predominant  place  of  introspection  and 
self-examination  in  the  moral  and  religious 
life ;  and  yet,  there  seems  ample  psychologi- 
cal ground  for  insisting  that  the  prevailing 
mood  must  be  objective.  Introspection  has 
its  undoubted  place,  but  it  is  a  much  more 
limited   place  than  is  ordinarily  recognized. 

^Op.  cit.,  p.  34. 


SUGGESTIONS  FROM   IMPORTANCE   OF  ACTION       1 97 

Just  SO  much  introspection  is  valuable  as 
may  make  a  man  sure  that  he  is  putting 
himself  persistently  in  the  presence  of  the 
great  objective  interests  and  personalities 
that  make  for  character.  When  he  has  made 
himself  sure  upon  this  point,  the  less  he 
thinks  about  himself,  the  better. 

It  needs  only  a  word  to  show  that  this 
self-forgetful  mood  of  objectivity  is  as  val- 
uable an  element  in  the  highest  influence^  as 
in  character  and  happiness.  A  man  counts 
with  us,  in  fact,  in  direct  proportion  —  other 
things  being  equal  —  to  our  confidence  in 
his  own  downright  conviction  and  disinter- 
estedness—  the  degree  in  which  he  shows 
that  he  so  believes  in  his  cause  or  in  his 
friend  as  to  have  quite  forgotten  himself  in 
them.  The  attraction  of  such  a  leader  is 
genuine  and  quite  irresistible.  He  rings  true 
and  really  counts.  The  wiliest  schemes  of 
designing  men  are  often  brought  quickly  to 
naught  by  the  straight,  sincere  word  or  deed 
of  a  truly  self-forgetful  man. 

Character,  then,  and  happiness,  and  in- 
fluence, all  alike,  require  objectivity — self- 
forgetfulness  —  as  a  prime  condition.  And 
this  mood,  we  are  never  to  forget,  is  im- 
mediately connected  with  that  persistent  put- 


1 98  RATIONAL    LIVING 

ting  of  ourselves  in  the  presence  of  the 
great  objective  truths  and  forces  and  persons, 
for  which,  as  we  have  seen,  positive  self- 
control  imperatively  calls.  It  is  just  here 
that  the  importance  of  environment  in  all 
social  betterment  lies.  For  character,  and 
for  the  highest  happiness  as  well,  we  need 
truths  and  causes  and  persons  great  enough, 
that  in  devotion  to  them  we  may  lose  our- 
selves with  joy.  We  are  thus  brought  to 
see,  also,  that  work  —  the  highest  expressive 
activity  —  is  a  chief  means  to  character  and 
happiness  and   influence. 


IV.     WORK   A  CHIEF  MEANS  TO  CHARACTER 
AND    HAPPINESS  AND   INFLUENCE 

If  we  are  made  for  action,  then  we  shall 
nowhere  come  to  our  best  without  work. 
We  are  made  for  activity,  not  idleness. 
And  work,  that  means,  not  empty  leisure,  is 
chiefly  to  be  coveted ;  for  work  is  one  of  our 
greatest  educators  and  one  of  our  greatest 
joys,  as  the  history  of  the  race  proves. 
Again,  if  even  thought  and  feeling  tend  to 
action,  and  are  normally  complete  only  when 
the  act  follows,  much  more  must  this  be 
true    of    the    mind's    active    functions  —  voli- 


SUGGESTIONS  FROM   IMPORTANCE   OF  ACTION       IQQ 

tions  —  and  most  of  all  of  the  highest 
j^olitions  —  moral  and  religious  purposes. 
One  inexorable  law  rules  throughout :  That 
which  is  not  expressed  dies.  If  there  is,  th<"re- 
fore,  within  one  any  desire,  thought,  feeling, 
or  purpose,  that  he  would  kill,  he  must 
simply  deny  it  all  expression;  it  will  die, — 
though  a  merely  negative  method  here,  too, 
may  not  wholly  succeed.  On  the  other 
hand,  if  there  is  anything  he  wishes  to  have 
live,  he  must  express  it.  If  we  would  have 
our  purposes  mean  anything,  we  must  put 
them  into  act.  They  are  hardly  ours  at  all 
until  they  are  expressed.  Wundt  gives  an 
interesting  illustration  of  this  law,  in  both 
its  negative  and  positive  aspects,  in  speaking 
of  "  the  rules  of  good  manners  and  of  so- 
cial intercourse."  '^Their  repression  of  the 
outward  signs  of  inconsiderate  selfishness, 
and  their  constant  emphasis  of  regard  for 
others  as  the  norm  of  social  demeanor,  give 
them  a  lasting  control  over  the  inward  dis- 
position. More  urgently,  because  more  unre- 
mittingly, than  sermons  on  morality  and  . 
disquisitions  on  the  moral  law,  they  exhort  ; 
every  one  of  us  to  leave  selfishness,  and  i 
respect  his  neighbor's  rights."^  ; 

^  op.  cit.,  p.  226.  ^  ' 


200  RATIONAL    LIVING 

This  law  calls,  thus,  not  simply  for  activity 
of  some  sort,  but  for  work  that  shall  be  an 
expression  of  our  best  self  in  the  full  range  of 
our  being.  So  Hoffding  says:  "If  the  action 
to  which  the  purpose  is  directed  is  to  be  a 
complete  expression  of  self,  then  the  idea  of 
it  must  be  brought  into  inter-action  with  every 
important  side  of  the  self,  that  it  may  be  made 
the  object  of  a  universal  debate  in  conscious- 
ness ...  by  which  mere  purpose  becomes 
resolve.''^ '^  Mere  activity,  then,  is  not  enough. 
It  is  quite  possible  to  overdo,  for  example,  the 
emphasis  on  athletics  and  sport.  They  have 
their  important  and  undoubted  place,  espe- 
cially in  furnishing  healthful  exercise  and  an 
innocent  outlet  for  superabundant  energy; 
but  they  can  never  take  the  place,  even  for 
happiness,  of  real  work  that  is  largely  expres- 
sive of  the  whole  self.^  We  have  some  need  to 
heed  a  recent  warning:  "We  live — to  sum  up 
the  situation — in  a  generation  that  has  gone 
recreation-mad.  .  .  In  all  classes,  high  and 
low,  veneered  and  unveneered,  it  is  almost 
universally  true  that  the  foundations  of  appe- 
tite are  too  often  laid  in  the  struggle  to  'have 
a  good  time.'  The  instrument  of  an  occasional 

^  op.  cit.,  p.  328. 

'  Cf.  Lecky,  Op.  cit.,  pp.  240  ff. 


SUGGESTIONS   FROM   IMPORTANCE   OF  ACTION       201 

hilarity  has  an  unfortunate  tendency  to  develop 
into  the  minister  to  a  quenchless  thirst."^ 

It  is  possible  to  be  idly  busy,  or  at  least  to 
be  busy  to  small  purpose.  The  great  tempta- 
tion, probably,  of  all  executives,  for  example, 
is  to  allow  the  day  to  be  filled  with  many  small 
details,  and  not  to  hold  themselves  to  any 
solid  large  piece  of  work — to  the  work  that 
shall  call  out  their  best  and  largest — to  the 
work  that  is  really  laid  upon  them  to  do.  "In 
the  self-reverence  for  work,  divinely  commis- 
sioned, one  must  not  hesitate  to  refuse  'the 
devastator  of  a  day.'"  Indeed,  executives 
peculiarly  need  Hilty's  advice:  "Limit  your- 
self to  that  which  you  really  know  and  which 
has  been  specially  committed  to  your  care." 
"One  must  not  permit  himself  to  be  over- 
burdened with  superfluous  tasks." 

Plainly,  only  through  work  that  is  some  real 
expression  of  our  largest  self  can  there  come 
to  us  in  full  measure  either  character  or 
happiness  or  influence.  Carlyle  seems  to  have 
all  three  in  mind,  and  the  law  of  expres- 
sion upon  which  they  so  largely  depend, 
when  he  urges  so  impatiently:  "Pro- 
duce I  Produce !  Were  it  but  the  piti- 
fullest.    infinitesimal    fraction    of    a    product, 

*  Atlantic  Monthly,  August,  1904,  p.  247. 


202  RATIONAL    LIVING 

produce  it  in  God's  name  !  'Tis  the  utmost 
thou  hast  in  thee :  out  with  it  then.  Up  I 
Up!"  No  mere  '^ truth-hunting,"  no  specula- 
tion, no  high  emotions,  no  dreams,  no  rap- 
tures, no  thrills,  no  beatific  vision,  no  tran- 
scendental revelation  of  the  divine,  no  tasting 
God,  being  drunk  with  God,  or  absorption  in 
God  (as  the  old  mystics  variously  put  it)  will 
avail  anything,  if  they  do  not  mean  better 
character,  shown  in  more  active  service. 
They  all  need  active  valuable  expression.  The 
biblical  vision  is  always  an  appeal — "What 
doest  thou  here,  Elijah?"  And  it  calls  for  an 
answer,  "Here  am  I;  send  me."  There  is  no 
transfiguration  scene  that  allows  a  tarrying  in 
the  mount.  This  holds,  once  again,  not  only 
for  character,  but,  because  of  our  very  consti- 
tution, for  the  highest  happiness  and  influ- 
ence as  well. 

It  is  quite  in  harmony  with  the  psychologi- 
cal emphasis  we  are  now  considering,  that 
perhaps  the  most  notable  thing  in  Carl  Hilty's 
Happiness :  Essays  on  the  Meaning  of  Life^ 
should  be  a  like  insistence  upon  the  need  of 
useful  work,  and  suggestions  concerning  it. 
"The  whole  nature  of  man,"  he  says,  "is  cre- 
ated for  activity,  and  Nature  revenges  herself 
bitterly  on   him  who  would   rashly   defy  this 


SUGGESTIONS   FROM   IMPORTANCE  OF  ACTION       203 

law."  "The  happiest  workmen  are  those  who 
can  absolutely  lose  themselves  in  their  work." 
And  so  he  urges  upon  young  men:  "Do  your 
work  from  a  sense  of  duty,  or  for  love  of  what 
you  are  doing,  or  for  love  of  certain  definite 
persons;  attach  yourself  to  some  great  interest 
of  human  life."  And  he  significantly  adds 
later:  "Only  one  must  guard  against  making 
of  work  an  idol,  instead  of  serving  God 
through  one's  work."^ 

One  of  the  profoundest  needs  of  our 
nature,  thus,  is  work — work  great  enough 
and  significant  enough  to  call  out  our  full 
powers  and  to  absorb  us.  No  man  can  afford 
to  spare  the  joy  of  noble  work,  or  the  char- 
acter and  influence  that  are  wrought  out  in 
complete  self -forgetfulness  in  work.  Surely 
that  man  will  count  most  as  a  leader  in  a  great 
cause,  who  shows  that  he  has  forgotten  him- 
self in  the  cause.  "Get  work,"  the  great 
apostle  of  work  said ;  "blessed  is  the  man  who 
has  found  his  work,  let  him  ask  no  other 
blessedness."  "The  best  way  to  live  well," 
Granville  says,  "is  to  work  well." 

In  the  moral  development  of  the  race,  it 
should  be  noticed,  the  conception  of  work 
has    greatly  changed,    until,    as   Wundt   says, 

'  Hilty,  Happiness.  Translated  by  Francis  G.  Peabody,  pp.  6,9,  13,  92. 


204  RATIONAL    LIVING 

"the  highest  form  of  human  activity  is  now  not 
simply  an  agreeable  exercise  of  the  bodily  and 
mental  powers,  but  —  like  the  humblest  work, 
that  ministers  to  the  necessities  of  life — con- 
scientious fulfilment  of  duty.  But  it  has  not, 
therefore,  lost  the  pleasurable  effect  that  con- 
stituted its  old-world  attraction.  On  the 
contrary,  it  has  communicated  something  of  its 
own  attractiveness  to  the  lower  forms  of  labor, 
in  direct  proportion  as  these  have  grown  to 
be  free  manifestations  of  men's  powers,  instead 
of  the  grudging  outcome  of  fear  and 
coercion."^  "Man  grows  with  greatness  of 
his  purposes." 

The  need  of  work  in  which  one  can  for- 
get himself,  thus,  does  not  mean  a  dissatis- 
fied romantic  longing  for  some  work  which  : 
we  count  great,  but  from  which  the  Divine 
Providence  has  shut  us  out.  "  Men  let  slip 
their  own  birthright,"  another  has  wisely 
said,  "  while  they  are  staring  enviously  at 
their  neighbor's.  By  a  perverse  ingenuity 
they  persist  in  placing  their  ideal  outside 
their  own  possibilities."  Our  work,  the  great 
work  for  us,  is  exactly  that  task  given  us  of 
God — the  working  out  of  the  full  possibil- 
ities of    our   nature  and  of    that  situation   in 

^Op.  cit.,  p.  208. 


SUGGESTIONS   FROM   IMPORTANCE   OF  ACTION       205 

which  we  are  placed.  There  can  be  no 
"blue-rose  melancholy"  here.  To  no  man 
is  given  a  greater  work  than  simply  to  do 
the  will  of  God.  To  take  up  our  situation 
and  our  work  as  given  us  of  God  is  to 
make  both  great.  This  is  the  sphere  of  the 
highest  heroism.  Not  the  size  of  the  task, 
but  the  spirit  shown  in  the  task,  is  the  meas- 
ure of  the  man.  Tolstoi  and  Stevenson  and 
Kipling,  and  many  another,  have  given  us 
great  revelations  of  the  heroism  hidden  un- 
der common  toil.  "  It  was  left,"  Wundt 
says,  "  for  the  present  age  to  spread  the 
glamour  of  poetry  little  by  little  over  all  de- 
partments of  life.  Modern  art  has  found  a 
moral  and  aesthetic  value  in  every  form  of 
earnest  discharge  of  duty,  and,  itself  the  re- 
sult of  a  changed  view  of  life,  has  thus 
helped  on  its  part  to  extend  and  establish 
the  new  order."  ^ 

This  is  a  natural  part  of  the  Christian 
possibility.  Every  spiritual  leader  must  be  a 
seer  of  the  value  of  the  common.  We  all 
need  the  lesson  of  Robert  Herrick's  novel. 
The  Common  Lot^  as  he  voices  it  in  Helen's 
words  to  her  husband,  who  had  been  in- 
toxicated  with   the  ambition   for  a  false  suc- 

^  op.  cit.,  p.  213. 


206  RATIONAL    LIVING 

cess :  "  We  are  all  trying  to  get  out  of  the 
ranks,  to  leave  the  common  work  to  be 
done  by  others,  to  be  leaders.  We  think  it 
a  disgrace  to  stay  in  the  ranks,  to  work  for 
the  work's  sake,  to  bear  the  common  lot, 
which  is  to  live  humbly  and  labor !  Don't 
let  us  struggle  that  way  any  longer,  dear. 
It  is  wrong  —  it  is  a  curse.  It  will  never  give 
us  happiness  —  never." 

The  common  task  —  this  is  the  work 
which  we  are  to  fxud  great  enough  to  lose 
ourselves  in  it,  and  this  is  our  greatest  edu- 
cator under  God.  Gannett  has  put  this  so 
strongly  in  his  famous  sermon,  "  Blessed  be 
Drudgery,"  that  one  is  almost  forced  to 
quote  him.  "It  is  because  we  have  to  go, 
and  go,  morning  after  morning,  through 
rain,  through  shine,  through  toothache, 
headache,  heartache,  to  the  appointed  spot, 
and  do  the  appointed  work;  because,  and 
only  because,  we  have  to  stick  to  that 
work  through  the  eight  or  ten  hours,  long 
after  rest  would  be  so  sweet;  because  the 
schoolboy's  lesson  must  be  learned  at  nine 
o'clock  and  learned  without  a  slip  ;  because 
the  accounts  on  the  ledger  must  square  to 
a  cent ;  because  the  goods  must  tally  exactly 
with  the  invoice ;  because  good  temper  must 


SUGGESTIONS   FROM   IMPORTANCE   OF   ACTION       207 

be  kept  with  children,  customers,  neighbors, 
not  seven,  but  seventy  times  seven  times; 
because  the  besetting  sin  must  be  w^atched 
to-day,  to-morrow,  and  the  next  day ;  in 
short,  without  much  matter  what  our  work 
be,  whether  this  or  that,  it  is  because  and 
only  because  of  the  rut,  plod,  grind,  hum- 
drum in  the  work,  that  we  at  last  get  those 
self -foundations  laid  (of  which  I  spoke)  — 
attention,  promptness,  accuracy,  firmness, 
patience,  self-denial,  and  the  rest.  When  I 
think  over  that  list  and  seriously  ask  myself 
three  questions,  I  have  to  answer  each  with 
No :  Are  there  any  qualities  in  the  list  which 
I  can  afiord  to  spare,  to  go  without,  as  mere 
show- qualities?  Not  one.  Can  I  get  these 
self -foundations  laid,  save  by  the  weight, 
year  in,  year  out,  of  the  steady  pressures? 
No ;  there  is  no  other  way.  Is  there  a  single 
one  in  the  list  which  I  cannot  get  in  some 
degree  by  undergoing  the  steady  drills  and 
pressures?  No,  not  one.  Then,  beyond  all 
books,  beyond  all  class -work  at  the  school, 
beyond  all  special  opportunities  of  what  I 
call  my  '  education,'  it  is  this  drill  and 
pressure  of  my  daily  task  that  is  my  great 
schoolmaster.  My  daily  task^  whatever  it  is, 
that    is    what    mainly    educates    me.    All    other 


208  RATIONAL     LIVING 

culture  is  mere  luxury  compared  with  what 
that  gives.  This  gives  the  indispensables. 
Yet,  fool  that  I  am,  this  pressure  of  my 
daily  task  is  the  very  thing  that  I  so  growl 
at  as  my  '  Drudgery' !  " 

But  that  which  "educates  me"  makes  me 
more  —  able  to  be  more,  to  enjoy  more,  to  count 
more.  And  Gannett's  words,  thus,  show  how 
indispensable  some  useful  daily  task  is  to  us  all 
and  how  great  is  the  wrong  done  the  child  who 
is  not  held  daily  to  some  useful  service. 
This  is  absolutely  fundamental.  For  the  full 
value  of  work  for  any  of  us,  is  to  be  found 
only  in  activity  that  seems  to  us  worth 
while.  If  we  are  really  made  for  active  self- 
expression,  we  can  in  idleness  gain  happiness, 
as  little  as  character  or  influence.^ 

This  division  of  our  inquiry  ought  not  to 
be  brought  to  a  conclusion,  without  the  em- 
phatic caution  that  the  insistence  on  the 
imperative  need  of  the  expression  of  our  best 
selves  in  work  does  not  mean  any  belittling  of 
the  value  of  a  wise  leisure.  Fruitful  leisure  is 
rather  itself  the  result  of  earnest  work,  and  in 
its  turn  may  contribute  greatly  to  the  deepen- 
ing and  broadening  of  one's  work.  Significant 
work  requires  the  thoughtful  mind   that  sees 

*  C/.    King,  Personal   and  Ideal   Elements  in  Education,  pp.  119  ff 


SUGGESTIONS   FROM   IMPORTANCE   OF   ACTION        209 

things  in  their  true  proportions,  and  this 
demands  the  hours  of  quiet  detachment  from 
incessant  activity.  I  should  be  quite  unwiUing 
to  have  anything  that  I  have  written  regarded 
as  an  exhortation  to  the  common  nervous 
over-activity  of  Americans ;  for  I  am  rather  of 
the  opinion  of  one  of  our  foreign  critics  that 
"America's  greatest  need  is  repose,  time  to 
stop  and  take  breath." 


THE  CONCRETENESS  OF  THE  REAL— 
THE   INTER -RELATEDNESS   OF  ALL 

CHAPTER  XI 

THE    CONCRETENESS    OF    THE   REAL— THE   PSYCHOLOG- 
ICAL  EVIDENCE,    CONFIRMED    BY   THE 
HISTORY  OF    THOUGHT 

The  last  of  the  four  great  inferences  from 
modern  psychology  is  but  the  outcome  of 
the  three  preceding.  The  complexity  of  life, 
the  unity  of  man,  and  the  importance  of 
action  alike  emphasize  the  concrete  fullness 
of  reality.  They  deny  that  hard  and  fast 
lines  can  be  drawn  anywhere  in  reality,  that 
the  real  can  exist  or  be  either  fully  conceived 
or  stated  in  the  abstract. 


I.  THE   GENERAL  TREND   IN    PSYCHOLOGY  TOWARD 
RECOGNITION   OF    THIS   CONCRETENESS 

Not  all  psychologists  are  agreed  in  the 
individual  applications  of  this  principle,  but 
all  recognize  it  at  many  points,  and  the  trend, 
I  judge,  is  toward  its  universal  recognition. 
By  this  it  is  not   meant   that   the  business  of 

(210) 


EVIDENCE    OF    THE    CONCRETENESS    OF   THE    REAL   211 

a  strict  scientific  psychology  is  to  interpret 
ideally  the  whole  life ;  but  that  the  modern 
psychologist,  even  of  the  atomistic  school, 
has  a  wholesome  and  growing  sense  that  his 
scientific  statements  of  the  mental  process 
fall  far  short  of  their  entire  meaning.  The 
general  insistence  by  psychologists  on  the 
unity  of  the  mind,  and  the  unity  of  man, 
mind  and  body,  already  considered,  is  but 
an  illustration  of  this  growing  recognition 
of  the  concreteness  of  reality — of  relatedness 
everywhere.  What  Professor  James  calls  the 
"reinstatement  of  the  vague  and  inarticulate 
to  its  proper  place  in  our  mental  life"  means 
just  this  insistence  on  the  relatedness  of  all 
consciousness.  In  our  scientific  work  and 
thinking  we  must  make  use,  no  doubt,  of 
many  abstractions,  but  we  must  recognize  at 
the  same  time,  in  Miinsterberg's  language, 
that  they  do  "not  reach  the  reality  of  the 
untransformed  life."^  The  reality  is  always 
concrete.  We  can  analyze  a  motion,  for  ex- 
ample, and  separate  from  it  in  thought  its 
direction  and  rate  of  speed.  But  there  never 
was  a  real  motion  without  a  certain  definite 
direction  and  rate  of  speed.  It  is  interesting 
to  notice  that  the  Encyclopedia  Britannica  de- 

^  op.  cit.y  p.  19. 


212  RATIONAL    LIVING 

fines  a  mathematical  conception  (which,  it  says, 
"is  from  its  very  nature  abstract")  as  "any 
conception  which  is  definitely  and  completely 
determined  by  means  of  a  finite  number  of 
specifications,  say  by  assigning  a  finite  num- 
ber of  elements."  This  implies  that  the  real, 
the  concrete,  cannot  be  so  defined,  can 
never  be  fully  formulated.  In  Wundt's 
words :  "  Reality  is  always  fuller  and  richer 
than  theory." 

There  is  within  us,  indeed,  a  constant  war 
between  the  abstract  and  the  concrete.  Or, 
as  James  has  suggestively  put  it:  "Life  is 
one  long  struggle  between  conclusions  based 
on  abstract  ways  of  conceiving  cases,  and 
opposite  conclusions  prompted  by  our  in- 
stinctive perception  of  them  as  individual 
facts. "^  Abstract  classification  is  often  most 
convenient  and  even  necessary.  And  yet, 
so-called  abstract  justice — a  perpetual  appeal 
to  precedent — may  often  be  the  rankest  in- 
justice ;  for  It  is  likely  to  be  mere  arbitrary 
classing,  with  no  recognition  of  individual 
differences,  and  doing  away  with  all  distinc- 
tions. Its  mood,  as  Professor  James  reminds 
us,  is  essentially  that  of  the  Shah  of  Persia, 
who  declined,  when  in  England,  to  take  any 

^Psychology,  Vol,  II,  pp.  674-675. 


EVIDENCE   OF   THE    CONCRETENESS   OF   THE    REAL    213 

interest  in  the  Derby;  for  he  said  it  was 
already  known  to  him  that  one  horse  could 
run  faster  than  another.  Which  horse  was  the 
faster  was  no  matter.  And  yet  it  is  the  indi- 
vidual who  is  the  reality,  and  not  the  class. 
If  there  is  any  fast  trotting,  it  is  not  done 
by  the  genus  horse,  but  by  some  particular 
horse.  One  must  therefore  freely  grant  Pro- 
fessor James'  contention  that  "the  obstinate 
insisting  that  tweedledum  is  not  tweedledee  is 
the  bone  and  marrow  of  life."  "Life  pre- 
cedes, the  notion  follows,"  says  Dilthey.  And 
the  notion  is  always  less  than  the  full  life. 

II.    THE    MIND   MADE    FOR    RELATIONS 

Enough  has  surely  been  said  before,  to 
show,  also,  that,  just  as  the  mind  is  made  for 
action,  so,  too,  it  is  made  for  relations.  Its 
fundamental  intellectual  functions  —  discrimi- 
nation, assimilation,  and  synthesis  —  are  all 
relating  functions,  incessantly  at  work.  And 
the  completest  intellectual  counsel  which  can 
be  given  a  man,  we  have  seen,  is:  Concentrate 
attention  upon  relations.  We  are  made  for  a 
concrete  world  of  never-ending  relations  —  a 
world  in  which  all  things  are  knit  up  indis- 
solubly  together. 


214  RATIONAL    LIVING 

III.    ONE    REASON    FOR    THE    PLACE   AND   POWER  OF 
ART   AND    LITERATURE 

Here  lies  one  of  the  great  reasons  for  the 
place  and  power  of  art.  It  has  an  ideal,  but 
it  always  presents  this  ideal  concretely.  It  is 
no  abstraction.  It  is  so  far,  therefore,  akin 
to  life  itself,  for  the  very  problem  of  life  is 
the  embodying  of  ideals.  Art  and  literature, 
therefore,  make  an  appeal  that  no  abstract 
principle  or  ideal  can  make.  We  can  never 
speak  in  general.  We  can  never  act  in  gen- 
eral. We  can  never  be  good  in  general.  It 
is  all  in  particulars.  We  have  no  way  of  ex- 
pressing a  general  principle,  but  by  putting 
it  into  some  definite  concrete  individual  ac- 
tion. Now,  art  and  literature  give  us  always 
such  a  concrete  embodiment  of  an  ideal,  and 
so  approach  the  strongest  of  all  influences — 
the  influence  of  a  person. 

In  still  another  way  art  and  literature  show 
the  pov/er  of  the  concrete  and  the  individual. 
In  his  lectures  on  Greek  sculpture,  Kekule 
called  attention  to  the  fact  that  the  greatest 
works  were  made  for  some  definite  purpose 
for  a  particular  generation,  not  at  all  with 
the  idea  of  appealing  to  mankind  in  general 
in  all  ages.     But   the  very  concreteness  and 


EVIDENCE   OF   THE    CONCRETENESS   OF  THE   REAL    215 

definiteness  of  their  aim — their  precise  adap- 
tation to  their  own  generation — made  them 
all  the  more  certain  in  their  appeal  to  all 
men.  An  even  more  remarkable  illustration 
is  found  in  the  Bible.  Here  is  a  book  that 
we  conceive  as  meant  to  be  the  spiritual 
guide  of  all  men  in  all  ages.  And  yet  every 
single  book  in  it  was  written  with  a  very 
definite  purpose  to  meet  the  exact  spiritual 
needs  of  a  single  generation.  It  is  this  very 
fact  that  gives  it  its  wonderful  suggestion  for 
the  spiritual  life. 

Abstract  ideals  must  have  concrete  em- 
bodiment, and  that  embodiment  will  always 
involve  much  that  we  would  have  otherwise. 
He  who  insists  on  confining  his  enthusiasm 
and  support  to  the  Good -in -itself  and  the 
Beautiful-in-itself  —  to  ideal  embodiments  of 
ideals — will  have  no  opportunities  for  either 
action  or  enthusiasm  in  this  life. 


IV.    THE    INFLUENCE   OF   THE    IDEA   OF  THE 
ORGANISM   IN   THE    HISTORY   OF   THOUGHT 

The  recognition  of  the  concrete,  of  related- 
ness  everywhere,  has  expressed  itself  most 
definitely  in  the  history  of  thought,  in  the 
idea   of   the    organism,  and   the    attempt   has 


2l6  RATIONAL     LIVING 

been  made  to  apply  this  conception  not  only 
to  the  individual  man,  but  to  man's  relation 
to  the  world,  to  other  men,  and  to  God. 

The  Idea  of  the  Organism  before  Hegel. — 
The  classical  expression  of  the  thought  as 
applied  to  society  is  contained  in  Paul's  com- 
parison of  the  Church  to  a  body,  in  the 
twelfth  chapter  of  First  Corinthians.  Shaftes- 
bury is  the  first  philosophical  writer  strongly 
to  grasp  the  conception,  and  he  applies  it 
tellingly  in  ethics,  in  his  Characteristics;  and 
he  is  superficially  echoed  by  Pope.  The  con- 
ception emerges  anew  in  Kant's  Critique  of 
Judgment,  w^here  it  is  applied  especially  in 
the  sphere  of  the  beautiful.  Of  Kant's  suc- 
cessors, it  was  emphasized  particularly  by 
Schelling,  in  his  conception  of  Art  and  Na- 
ture, and  by  Schleiermacher  in  his  sesthetic 
conception  of  religion,  in  his  strong  sense 
of  "moral  communities,"  as  well  as  in  his 
perpetual  protest  against  all  one-sidedness. 

The  Idea  of  the  Organism  in  Hegel. —  But 
the  use  of  this  analogy  of  the  organism  came 
to  its  climax  in  Hegel,  whose  whole  philos- 
ophy it  permeates.  The  system  itself  aims 
to  be  an  organism,  and  claims  as  its  chief 
justification  that  it  is  completely  organic  ;  and 
it  strives  to  conceive  everything  organically. 


EVIDENCE    OF    THE    CONCRETENESS    OF   THE    REAL    217 

Its  fundamental  thesis  —  thought  and  being 
are  identical — is  an  assertion  of  so  close  a 
relation  between  thought  and  being  that 
thought  may  be  said  to  be  the  essence  of 
being.  His  dialectical  method  is  an  attempt 
to  formulate  the  process  of  growth  of  an 
organism,  so  that  thinking  itself,  as  Professor 
Royce  has  pointed  out,  is  conceived  as  "a 
kind  of  living,"  and  therefore  not  merely 
abstract.  His  thought  that  each  man  must 
repeat  in  his  thinking  the  course  of  thought 
of  the  race,  as  the  embryological  series  re- 
peats the  zoological,  was  only  another  appli- 
cation of  the  analogy  of  the  organism ;  and 
he  applied  the  conception  again  with  special 
force  in  ethics.  Even  his  idea  of  God  is  built 
upon  the  same  analogy. 

It  was  no  accident  that  this  philosophy 
gave  such  a  spur  to  historical  study,  not  in- 
deed as  a  mere  collecting  of  facts,  but  as  a 
rational  interpretation  of  events  in  their  neces- 
sary development.  Hegel's  system  is  the  best 
illustration  of  the  mediating  character  of  the 
philosophy  of  our  age.  It  has  inherited  the 
problems  of  the  past,  and  seeks  to  mediate 
between  the  opposing  solutions  —  to  show 
that  the  faulty  solutions  have  all  arisen  from 
conceiving  the  problem  too  one-sidedly.  That 


21 8  RATIONAL    LIVING 

is,  the  Hegelian  philosophy,  abstract  and 
formulizing  as  it  is,  was  intended  to  be  pre- 
eminently a  recognition  of  the  whole  concrete 
reality.  It  aims  to  do  justice  to  all,  to  both 
the  real  and  the  ideal,  the  individual  and  the 
whole,  the  sacred  and  the  secular. 

The  Idea  of  the  Organism  since  Hegel. — This 
growing  recognition  of  the  concrete  is  seen 
in  the  reaction  from  Hegel,  in  the  interests 
of  full  reality — as  against  abstract  a  priori 
speculation — with  the  immensely  increased 
attention  to  natural  science,  and,  in  philo- 
sophical lines,  to  the  history  of  philosophy, 
psychology,  ethics,  and  sociology.  The  Hege- 
lians themselves  show  this  reaction  in  their 
universal  refusal  to  make  any  strict  use  of 
Hegel's  formal  dialectic.  This  tendency,  in 
itself  inevitable,  has,  no  doubt,  been  confirmed 
and  greatly  strengthened  by  the  definite  set- 
ting forth  of  a  scientific  evolution  theory,  with 
its  attempt,  in  the  thought  of  an  organic 
growth,  to  draw  everything  within  its  sphere. 
Precisely  similar  phenomena  are  the  appli- 
cation to  well  nigh  every  subject  of  study 
of  the  biological  or  historical  or  "genetic," 
or  "functional"  method,  as  well  as  the  present 
emphasis  on  sociology,  with  its  assertion  of 
the  organic  nature  of  society. 


EVIDENCE    OF   THE    CONCRETENESS    OF   THE    REAL    219 

Professor  Dewey's  statement  of  a  truly  gen- 
etic method  of  treatment,  perhaps,  carries  the 
idea  of  the  organic  as  far  as  it  is  possible  to 
carry  it,  and  is  itself,  in  his  notable  use  of  it,  a 
striking  example  of  the  relatedness  and  con- 
creteness  of  all  reality.  "The  method,"  he 
says,  "as  well  as  the  material,  is  genetic  when 
the  effort  is  made  to  see  just  isohy  and  how  the 
fact  shows  itself,  what  is  the  state  out  of 
which  it  naturally  proceeds,  what  the  con- 
ditions of  its  manifestation,  how  it  came  to 
be  there  anyway,  and  what  other  changes  it 
arouses  or  checks  after  it  comes  to  be  there." 
"For  in  a  truly  genetic  method,  the  idea 
of  genesis  looks  both  ways ;  this  fact  is  itself 
generated  out  of  certain  conditions,  and  in 
turn  tends  to   generate  something  else."^ 

The  whole  recent  "pragmatic"  movement, 
indeed,  with  which  both  Professor  Dewey 
and  Professor  James  have  been  so  closely 
connected,  may  be  regarded  as  a  kind  of 
final  stage  in  this  development  of  the  idea 
of  the  organic,  and,  at  the  same  time,  as 
strongly  asserting  both  of  our  last  two  great 
inferences  from  modern  psychology ;  as  may 
be  seen,   perhaps,   from   Professor    Bawden's 

1  In  Introduction  to  Irving  King's  The  Psychology  of  Child  De- 
'velopment,  pp.  xiii,  xv 


220  RATIONAL    LIVING 

rather  technical  summary  of  the  main  posi- 
tions of  the  movement.  "The  general  move- 
ment," he  says,  "which  rightly  or  wrongly  is 
coming  to  be  designated  as  pragmatism  is 
away  from  an  intellectualistic  and  transcen- 
dental, toward  a  voluntaristic  and  empirical 
metaphysics.  It  is  thoroughly  evolutionistic 
in  its  general  presuppositions,  though  critical 
in  its  exposition  of  details  of  this  doctrine^ 
And,  finally,  it  seeks  to  interpret  in  dynamic 
and  functional  terms  the  valuable  results  of 
the  analysis  of  consciousness  which  the  struc- 
tural psychology  has  given  us,  and  turns,  for 
its  basic  principles  of  interpretation,  to  psycho- 
genetic  science."^ 


V.    A   NEW   PROTEST  CONSTANTLY   NEEDED    IN   THE 
INTEREST  OF   THE   WHOLE   MAN 

All  these  tendencies  in  the  general  history 
of  thought,  thus  briefly  passed  in  review,  are 
in  harmony  with  the  psychological  trend, 
and  are  so  many  assertions  that  all  reality 
must  be  conceived  as  concretely  as  possible. 
But  not  only  philosophy,  but  all  our  thinking 
— for   the    very    reason    that    it    is    finite    and 

1  The  Journal  of  Philosophy,  Psychology,  and  Scientific  Methods, 
August  4,  1904,  p.  427. 


EVIDENCE    OF   THE    CONCRETENESS   OF   THE    REAL    221 

seeks  to  formulate  the  universe  in  intellectual 
terms — is  likely  to  be  too  abstract — too  one- 
sided— to  be  unjust  to  feeling,  to  will,  and 
to  the  aesthetic,  the  ethical,  and  the  religious 
ideals.  That  is,  it  is  most  likely  to  minimize, 
if  not  to  ignore,  those  portions  of  life  that 
refuse  to  be  adequately  formulated  in  intel- 
lectual terms.  Even  here  one  need  not 
arbitrarily  limit  thought,  but  may  cherish 
earnestly  Hegel's  ideal,  that  thinking  itself 
is  to  be  a  kind  of  living,  and  so  hope  that, 
in  the  long  reflection  of  the  philosopher  and 
in  the  insights  of  the  artist  and  poet,  thought 
may  more  and  more  nearly  approach  an 
adequate  expression  of  reality;  but  the  dan- 
ger of  one-sidedness  and  of  mere  intellec- 
tualism  is  a  real  one,  and  a  new  protest  is 
therefore  constantly  needed  in  the  interests 
of  the  whole  concrete  reality,  and  particularly 
of  the  whole  man. 

It  is  such  a  protest  that  is  refreshingly  made 
by  Miinsterberg  in  his  Psychology  and  Life^ 
which  is  not  less  refreshing  that  I  do  not 
believe  it  is  possible  in  one's  ultimate  phi- 
losophy to  keep  as  absolutely  distinct,  as  he 
tries  to  do,  mechanical  explanation  and  ideal 
interpretation.  "We  are  not  merely  passive 
subjects  with  a  world  of  conscious  objects/* 


222  RATIONAL    LIVING 

he  says;  "we  are  willing  subjects,  whose  acts 
of  will  have  not  less  reality  in  spite  of  the 
fact  that  they  are  no  objects  at  all."  "The 
reality  of  the  will  and  feeling  and  judgment 
does  not  belong  to  the  describable  world,  but 
to  a  world  which  has  to  be  appreciated;  it 
has  to  be  linked,  therefore,  not  by  the  cate- 
gories of  cause  and  effect,  but  by  those  of 
meaning  and  value." 

The  Protest  in  the  History  of  Literature . — It 
is  the  repetition  of  the  same  protest  for  the 
whole  reality  that  has  constituted  the  periods 
of  literature,  as  Howells  has  pointed  out. 
Romanticism  was  a  protest  against  the  barren 
formalism  of  a  decadent  classicism — a  demand 
that  literature  must  return  to  the  fullness  and 
richness  of  life.  When  Romanticism  came 
only  to  dream  dreams  and  to  build  castles 
in  the  air,  and  so  got  away  from  the  realities 
of  life,  Realism  came  in  as  another  protest 
for  the  whole  real  life.  The  new  Symbolism 
seems  to  be  a  kind  of  new  protest  against  a 
barren  recital  of  facts,  while  ignoring  their 
meaning  for  life.  Every  reformation  in  litera- 
ture, thus,  as  in  Philosophy,  is  a  protestantism 
— a  protest  against  a  one-sided  viewing  of 
life — a  realism.  Leslie  Stephen's  theory  of 
literary  development  involves  much  the  same 


EVIDENCE   OF   THE   CONCRETENESS   OF   THE    REAL    223 

emphasis,  for  it  insists  that  the  vital  literature 
of  any  period  must  be  a  genuine  expression 
of  the  profoundest  life  of  that  period.  "The 
watchword  of  every  literary  school,"  he  says, 
"may  be  brought  under  the  formula,  'Return 
to  Nature';  though  Nature  receives  different 
interpretations."  Literature  must  express  "the 
really  vital  and  powerful  currents  of  thought 
which  are  molding  society.  The  great  author 
must  have  a  people  behind  him;  utter  both 
what  he  really  thinks  and  feels  and  what  is 
thought  and  felt  most  profoundly  by  his 
contemporaries." 

The  Protest  in  Philosophy. — The  severest 
critics  of  Hegel  have  really  criticized  him  in 
that  he  did  not  carry  out  his  own  demand. 
He  draws  a  sharp  and  unwarranted  line,  for 
example,  between  the  analytical  understand- 
ing and  the  unity-seeking  reason.  That  the 
analogy  of  the  organism  so  fully  satisfies  him, 
and  is  so  constantly  returned  to,  even  where 
it  has  been  declared  insufficient,  is  itself  a 
failure  to  follow  his  own  principle ;  for  the 
organism  (though  doubtless  our  best  material 
symbol)  can  never  fully  express  the  signifi- 
cance of  personal  relations;  he  consequently 
underestimates  the  personal,  gives  no  suffi- 
cient place  to  feeling  and  will,  and  therefore 


224  RATIONAL    LIVING 

belittles  the  ethical,  and  for  both  reasons 
fails  to  understand  the  real  and  permanent 
significance  of  the  historical.  No  principle 
less  broad  than  that  of  the  whole  spirit  can 
be  made  to  interpret  spirit. 

The  Protest  in  History. — But  does  not  the 
immense  influence  of  the  evolution  theory 
in  all  subjects  of  inquiry,  and  the  well-nigh 
universal  use  of  the  biological  or  historical 
method  show  that  the  analogy  of  the  organ- 
ism is  sufficient  for  the  spiritual  as  well  as 
for  the  natural  sciences?  Do  not  both  classes 
of  sciences  use  the  same  method?  In  a  broad 
sense,  no  doubt,  both  these  implied  statements 
are  true.  The  methods  of  natural  science 
and  of  history  never  so  nearly  approached 
each  other  as  today,  and  both  do  aim  to 
trace  a  growth.  But  it  is  still  true  that  per- 
sonal relations  cannot  be  adequately  expressed 
by  the  organic,  and  that  the  aims  and  interests 
of  the  methods  of  the  natural  sciences  and  of 
history    are    different. 

Windelband  seems  to  me  to  state  the  con- 
trast not  too  strongly,  in  his  Rector's  address 
before  the  University  of  Strassburg,  when  he 
says:  "The  empirical  sciences  (including 
natural  science  and  history)  seek  in  the  knowl- 
edge of  the  actual  (i)  either  the  universal  in 


•      EVIDENCE    OF   THE    CONCRETENESS   OF   THE    REAL    225 

the  form  of  law,  or  (2)  the  individual  in  its  his- 
torically determined  shape  ;  they  look,  on  the 
one  hand,  to  the  ever  identical  form,  and,  on 
the  other,  to  the  unique  self-determined  con- 
tent of  the  actual  occurrence.  The  former  are 
sciences  of  law,  the  latter  sciences  of  events ; 
the  one  teach  what  always  is;  the  other  what 
once  was."  If  this  distinction  is  a  true  one,  the 
aim  and  interest  of  the  two  classes  of  science 
are  quite  different.  The  scientist  is  interested 
in  a  particular  phenomenon  only  as  an  illus- 
tration of  the  universal — of  law ;  the  historian 
is  interested  in  his  individual  phenomenon, 
as  individual,  for  what  it  is  in  itself. 

It  is  in  exactly  this  sense,  I  suppose,  that 
Miinsterberg  says:  "The  appreciation  of  a 
physical  object  as  a  whole  is  never  natural 
science,  and  the  interpretation  and  suggestion 
of  a  mental  state  as  a  whole  is  never  psychol- 
ogy" (in  the  strictest  scientific  sense)  .^  Now, 
the  universal  —  the  law  —  is  of  great  value  for 
human  knowledge,  but  only  as  it  helps  us, — 
to  quote  another — "by  reasoning,  to  know 
new  truths  about  individual  things."  In  itself 
it  is  no  reality;  "the  things  of  worth  are  all 
concretes    and  singulars."^    "In    the    unique- 

1  op.  cii.,  p.  149. 

^  James,  Psychology    Vol.  I,  p.  479. 


226  RATIONAL    LIVING 

ness,  the  incomparability  of  the  object,"  says 
Windelband,  "root  all  our  feelings  of  worth." 

It  is  only  the  natural -scientific  point  of 
view,  therefore,  that  sees  in  the  individual 
members  of  the  development  series  but  tran- 
sient stages — steps  in  the  process;  the  true 
historical  point  of  view  abides  by  the  con- 
crete individual,  and  holds  that  the  historical 
is  itself  of  essential  significance.  It  was  in 
this  sense,  I  suppose,  that  Harnack  said,  that 
although  biography  was  the  least  scientific, 
it  v/as  at  the  same  time  the  most  valuable 
history.  In  the  study  of  the  single  life,  that 
is,  it  was  least  possible  to  trace  exact  causal 
connections;  but  in  so  far  as  the  meaning 
and  spirit  of  this  individual  life  were  reached, 
the  study  yielded  the  greatest  value.  So  Hoff- 
ding  says:  "Each  individual  trait,  each  indi- 
vidual property,  might  perhaps  be  explained 
by  the  power  of  heredity  and  the  influence 
of  experience;  but  the  inner  unity,  to  which 
all  elements  refer,  and  by  virtue  of  which 
the  individuality  is  a  psychical  individuality, 
remains  for  us  an  eternal  riddle."  "Psychical 
individuality  is  one  of  the  practical  limits  of 
science."^ 

The  tendency  to  recognize  the  whole  con- 

1  op.  cit.,  pp.  353,  354. 


EVIDENCE   OF   THE   CONCRETENESS  OF  THE   REAL    227 

Crete  reality,  therefore,  leads  of  itself  to  an 
emphasis  on  the  historical  as  such,  and  not 
merely  as  illustrating  general  principles.  This 
is  the  point  of  Lotze's  emphatic  protest: 
"And  therefore  will  we  always  combat  these 
conceptions  which  acknowledge  only  one-half, 
and  that  the  poorer  half,  of  the  world;  only 
the  unfolding  of  facts  to  new  facts,  of  forms  to 
new  forms,  and  not  the  continual  mental 
elaboration  of  all  these  outward  events  into 
that  which  alone  in  the  universe  has  worth  and 
truth — into  the  bliss  and  despair,  the  admira- 
tion and  loathing,  the  love  and  the  hate,  the 
joyous  certainty  and  the  despairing  longing, 
and  all  the  nameless  fear  and  favor  in  which 
that  life  passes  which  alone  is  worthy  to  be 
called  life."^ 

The  Protest  in  Education. — The  protest  in 
education  in  the  interest  of  the  whole  man 
cannot  be  less  earnest  than  the  protest  in 
literature  or  philosophy  or  history.  All  that 
psychology  has  to  say  as  to  the  unity  of 
man  shows  the  absurdity  of  exclusive  ten- 
dencies in  any  education  that  really  looks  to 
life.  The  protest  is  needed,  and  in  part  at 
least  made,  all  along  the  line  ;  but  nowhere 
is  it  needed  more  than  in  public  school  and 

^  Microcosmus,  Vol.  II,  p.  167. 


228  RATIONAL    LIVING 

in  college  education.  Whatever  is  true  as  to 
other  parts  of  our  educational  system,  here 
surely,  the  interests  of  the  whole  man  de- 
mand attention,  and  in  definite,  concrete 
ways/  And  much  of  the  most  sound  and 
wholesome  educational  counsel  of  our  time 
connects  itself  directly  with  this  emphasis  of 
modern  psychology  upon  the  concreteness 
of  reality  and  so  upon  the  whole  man. 

VI.    THE    EMPHASIS    ON    PERSONS   AND    PERSONAL 
RELATIONS  — THE    SOCIAL    SELF 

It  is  evident  that  the  justification  of  the 
historical,  of  which  we  have  spoken,  rests 
on  a  belief  in  the  absolute  worth  of  the 
person.  The  emphasis  on  the  historical, 
therefore,  becomes  an  emphasis  on  the  per- 
son and  personal  relations,  on  the  social 
self  —  on  the  entire  experience  of  the  entire' 
soul  in  its  relations  to  others.  The  funda- 
mental convictions  of  the  social  conscious- 
ness must  be,  thus,  ultimately  involved  in 
the  emphasis  upon  the  concrete.  The  his- 
torical point  of  view  agrees  with  the  natural- 
scientific —  in  its  assertion  of  relatedness 
everywhere  (and    its  consequent    use    of   the 

^  Cf.  King,  Personal  and  Ideal  Elements  in  Education,  pp.  13  ff. 


EVIDENCE    OF   THE    CONCRETENESS   OF   THE    REAL    229 

idea  of  evolution),  but  adds  an  equally  em- 
phatic insistence  on  the  concrete  individual. 
At  first  sight  this  seems  like  denying  all  di- 
visions, on  the  one  hand,  and  asserting  them 
on  the  other.  Yet  relatedness  and  personal- 
ity are  not  opposed.  "  To  be,"  Lotze  says, 
"  is  to  be  in  relations."  But  he  makes  it  the 
fundamental  proposition  of  his  spiritualism 
that  only  spirits  are  capable  of  entering  into 
relations.  Certainly,  the  emphasis  on  the  con- 
creteness  of  all  reality  must  be  an  emphasis 
not  only  upon  the  permanent  significance 
of  the  historical  as  such,  but  also  upon  the 
surpassing  significance  of  persons  and  per- 
sonal relations.  As  Brierley  says  of  literature, 
"  The  personal  is  the  one  thing  that  inter- 
ests. Doctrine  and  dogma,  whether  theo- 
logic,  social,  or  economic,  left  to  its  naked 
self,  will  moulder  on  the  back  shelves  of 
libraries.  To  be  powerful,  it  must  be  incar- 
nated."^ 

Even  more  than  that  we  are  made  for  ac- 
tion, is  it  true,  that  we  are  persons  and  are 
made  for  personal  relations ;  and  these  per- 
sonal relations  are  a  part  of  our  very  being. 

The  Human  '^ody  Looks  to  Personal  Asso- 
ciation,—  Even   our  bodies  show  that  we  are 

^Studies  of  the  Soul,  p.  25. 


230  RATIONAL    LIVING 

made  for  personal  association.  No  animal 
body  approaches  man's  in  the  free  use  of 
the  arms  as  instruments  of  work,  or,  espe- 
cially because  of  the  uncovered  skin  of  man, 
in  the  speaking  power  of  his  countenance. 
And  in  just  the  degree  in  which  our  bodies 
are  made  for  work  which  reveals  ourselves, 
and  in  just  the  degree  in  which  our  bodies 
are  capable  of  expressing  our  inner  life  and 
each  feature  of  it  with  fine  adaptation,  in  just 
that  degree  are  we  fitted  even  as  to  body  in 
superior  measure  for  personal  association. 
The  long  and  helpless  infancy  of  the  hu- 
man being,  moreover,  compels  the  develop- 
ment of  love  and  care,  if  the  race  is  to 
continue  at  all.  Here,  too,  the  very  bodily 
organization  of  man  shuts  him  up  to  personal 
association. 

The  Witness  of  Infancy. — The  earliest  days 
of  life,  too,  are  a  witness  that  we  are  made 
for  personal  relations.  The  child  knows  per- 
sons before  he  knows  things,  Dilthey  be- 
lieves; and  this  is  most  significant.  "The 
foundation  for  our  whole  social  conscious- 
ness," says  Royce,  "seems  to  lie  in  certain 
instincts  which  characterize  us  as  social 
beings,  and  which  begin  to  assume  consid- 
erable  prominence    toward   the   end   of    the 


EVIDENCE   OF   THE    CONCRETENESS   OF   THE    REAL    231 

first  year  of  an  infant's  life."  "Our  social 
environment,"  he  adds,  "is  a  constant  source 
of  numerous  sensory  pleasures,  and  by  asso- 
ciation becomes  interesting  to  us  accordingly. 
But  in  addition  to  the  pleasures  of  sense 
which  are  due  to  our  human  companions, 
there  are,  no  doubt,  from  the  first,  deep 
instinctive  and  hereditary  sources  of  interest 
in  the  activities  of  human  beings."^  As  to 
later  childhood,  Dawson  says,  as  the  outcome 
of  an  extended  investigation:  "At  all  ages 
children  feel  more  interested  in  persons  than 
in  any  other  elements  of  the  Bible."  ^ 

The  Witness  of  the  Moral  History  of  the 
Race. — The  history  of  the  moral  development 
of  the  race  compels  us  to  lay  the  same  em- 
phasis upon  personal  association.  The  general 
humanistic  spirit  has  only  through  it  come 
into  being.  As  Wundt  says,  "there  were  two 
principal  causes  that  led  up  to  it,  friendship 
and  hospitality  —  forms  of  personal  relation 
through  which  the  more  general  humanistic 
idea  gradually  attained  to  maturity."  And 
Wundt  finds,  moreover,  in  the  moral  devel- 
opment of  the  race,  "two  fundamental  psycho- 
logical  motives^    whose    universal    validity   de- 

1  Outlines  of  Psychology,  p.  275. 

-  Quoted  by  Du  Bois,  The  Natural  Way,  p.  249. 


232  RATIONAL    LIVING 

pends  upon  the  constancy  with  which  theyi 
produce  their  effect  in  human  consciousness:} 
the  feehngs  of  reverence  and  of  affection.''^\ 
"The  whole  development  of  morality,"  he 
says,  "rests  on  the  expression  of  these  two 
fundamental  impulses  of  human  nature."^  It 
would  be  difficult  to  state  more  strongly  the 
fundamental  character  of  personal  association 
for  the  life  of  men. 

The  Witness  of  Philosophy. — It  is  a  remark- 
able thing,  too,  that,  though  a  denial  of  the 
external  world  is  common  enough  among 
philosophers,  no  philosopher  has  ever  denied 
the  existence  of  other  persons.  The  philos- 
opher seems,  rather,  compelled  to  accept 
persons  as  indubitable  facts.  Persons  are  for 
us,  in  truth,  the  most  real  of  realities — the 
most  certain  and  the  most  important  facts. 
No  factors  in  our  environment  are  so  mighty 
as  the  personal  factors ;  no  relations  so 
decisive.  And  personal  relations  are  really 
more  clear  to  our  understanding,  even,  than 
any  of  the  analogies  from  things  by  which 
we  strive  to  illustrate  them.  We  know  them 
better.  Here  has  lain  the  folly  of  religious 
thinking  (repeated  over  and  over) — in  trying 
to  express  the  profoundest  personal  relations 

^Op.  cit.,  pp.  283,  328. 


EVIDENCE   OF   THE    CONCRETENESS   OF   THE    REAL    233 

within  the  terms  of  impersonal  analogies. 
The  history  of  theology  is  full  of  such  futile 
attempts. 

The  Whole  Man  Revealed  Only  in  Personal 
Relations. —  Moreover,  the  real  man  —  the 
entire  man — is  revealed  only  in  personal  rela- 
tions. All  that  he  is  comes  out  only  here — 
not  in  what  he  says,  not  even  in  what  he 
does.  It  is  in  the  relation  of  man  to  man  that 
he  stands  fully  revealed.  The  great  desidera- 
tum, therefore,  is  not  complete  knowledge 
about  a  man,  but  acquaintance  with  him,  in 
which  there  comes  to  us  more  of  impression, 
of  feeling,  of  impulse,  of  inspiration,  of  con- 
tagion of  character,  than  any  formula  we  make 
can  express.  We  are  continually  made  con- 
scious of  the  fact  that  we  cannot  tell  another 
all  our  friend  means ;  the  other  must  find 
him  out  only  in  a  personal  association  of  his 
own. 

So  Birrell  finds  Charles  Lamb  revealed 
in  his  personal  relation  to  his  father:  "In 
early  manhood,"  he  says,  "Coleridge  planned 
a  Pantisocracy  where  all  the  virtues  were  to 
thrive.  Lamb  did  something  far  more  diffi- 
cult :  he  played  cribbage  every  night  with 
his  imbecile  father,  whose  constant  stream 
of  querulous  talk  and  fault-finding  might  well 


234  RATIONAL    LIVING 

have  goaded  a  far  stronger  man  into  practis- 
ing and  justifying  neglect."  And  Birrell 
quotes  from  a  significant  letter  of  Lamb's  to 
Coleridge:  "O  my  friend,  cultivate  the  filial 
feelings;  and  let  no  man  think  himself 
released  from  the  kind  charities  of  relation- 
ship :  these  shall  give  him  peace  at  last; 
these  are  the  best  foundation  for  every 
species  of  benevolence.  I  rejoice  to  hear 
that  you  are  reconciled  with  all  your  rela- 
tions." It  is  the  great  theme  of  Maurice's 
Social  Morality^  that  the  common  personal 
relations  of  life  are  precisely  the  great  means 
of  the  divine  training.  Only  in  personal  rela- 
tions is  the  whole  being  brought  out. 

This  is  the  real  and  eternal  truth  in  mysti- 
cism which  makes  it  recur  after  every  period 
of  rationalism.  It  is  not  necessarily  mistiness 
nor  an  avoidance  of  clear  thinking,  but  it  is 
a  deep  conviction  that  things  are  more  than 
we  can  tell ;  that  only  an  abstract  conception 
can  be  fully  formulated,  the  concrete  indi- 
vidual, never.  Life  is  always  more  than 
thought;  the  concrete,  than  the  abstract. 
The  whole  man  is  more  than  any  possible 
intellectual  formula  for  him.  We  can  expe- 
rience and  feel  and  do  and  live  more  than 
we  can  tell.    The  entire  man  is  the  reality, 


EVIDENCE  OF  THE   CONCRETENESS  OF  THE   REAL    235 

the  intellect  alone  Is  the  abstraction.  The 
truest  realism,  therefore,  is  emphasis  on  the 
whole  personal  life,  and  so  final  mysticism; 
and  mysticism  that  really  understands  itself 
must  be  realism.^  To  similar  import,  Professor 
Coe  says  of  the  modern  conception  of  the 
religious  life:  "We  have  not  to  ask  men  to 
take  into  themselves  something  foreign  to 
their  nature.  Our  invitation  is  rather  this : 
^Be  your  whole  self!  Be  completely  in  earnest 
with  your  intelleciual  sincerity,  with  your 
conscientiousness,  with  your  love  of  fellow- 
men,  with  your  aspiration  for  all  that  is  true 
and  beautiful  and  good,  and  you  will  find 
that  a  sense  of  God  is  the  moving  spring  of 
the  whole.'  "^ 

1  Cf.  King,  Theology  and  the  Social  Consciousness,  Chapters  V-VI, 
^The  Religion  of  a  Mature  Mind,  pp.  248-249. 


CHAPTER    XII 

THE    CONCRETENESS   OF  THE   REAL—SUGGESTIONS 
FOR   LIVING 

I.    RESPECT    FOR   THE   LIBERTY    AND   THE 
PERSONALITY   OF  OTHERS 

This  emphasis  on  vhe  concrete  and  per- 
sonal suggests  at  once  a  third  great  condi- 
tion for  character  and  happiness  and  influ- 
ence, besides  self-control  and  objectivity — 
sacred  respect  for  the  liberty  and  the 
personality  of  oth-irs.^ 

Recognition  of  the  Moral  Freedom  of  Others. — 
For,  in  the  first  place,  all  that  is  best  in  us  can 
only  beco7ne ;  it  must  be  from  within;  as  Miss 
Brackett  says  of  *-est — it  cannot  be  pasted  on 
to  one.  The  springs  and  the  essential  con- 
ditions of  character  and  happiness  and  influ- 
ence are  inner;  and  there  must  be  left, 
therefore,  to  every  person  a  very  genuine  and 
inviolable  sphere  of  freedom.  Even  in  the 
case    of   a    child,    it    is    recognized    that    this 

1  Cf.  Patterson  Du  Bois,  The  Natural  Way,  Chapter  III ;  King, 

The  Appeal  of  the  Child,  pp.  24  ff. 

(23O 


SUGGESTIONS  FROM  CONCRETENESS  OF  THE  REAL  237 

sphere  of  freedom  should  enlarge  as  the  child 
grows.  Sully  rightly  warns:  "Nothing  is 
more  fatal  to  will-growth  than  an  excess  of 
discipline  permeating  the  whole  of  a  child's 
surroundings."  "Play,"  he  says,  "owes  no 
little  of  its  moral  value  to  the  fact  that  it 
provides  this  area  of  unrestricted  activity." 
It  isn't  best  that  all  play  should  be  under 
even  kindergarten  instruction ;  though  Froe- 
bel  meant  exactly  to  guard  against  this  over- 
riding of  the  child,  in  seeking  always  "a 
developm.ent  from  within,  never  a  prescrip- 
tion from  without." 

Increasingly,  counsel,  friendly  suggestion, 
or  unspoken  influence  must  replace  com- 
mand. There  can  be  no  character  otherwise  ; 
for  character  must  be  one's  own  creation. 
The  wise  teacher  or  parent  aims  to  produce 
not  a  mere  going  through  the  motions  of 
right  conduct,  not  certain  objective  results, 
certain  outward  performances,  but  an  inner 
life,  that  can  be  a  genuine  source  of  character 
and  happiness  and  influence,  that  shall  be  in 
the  child  a  spring  of  water,  bubbling  up  into 
life.  No  one  is  established  in  real  char- 
acter—  and  so  In  happiness  and  influence  — 
in  whom  there  is  not  the  inner  desire  and 
purpose  of    righteous   living,    as  well   as   the 


238  RATIONAL    LIVING 

corresponding  forms  of  conduct.  The  con- 
duct must  be  our  own,  chosen  with  living 
vohtion,  if  it  is  to  mean  character.  And  if 
work  is  to  give  us  joy,  it  must  not  be  merely 
compelled,  but  taken  on  as  possibility  of 
genuine  attainment  and  conquest.  Patterson 
Du  Bois  has  so  perfectly  expressed  the  true 
attitude  here,  in  his  contrast  between  the  old 
and  the  new  conceptions  of  fatherhood,  that 
I  can  do  no  better  than  to  quote  him.  The 
true  father,  he  maintains,  says  not,  "I  will 
conquer  that  child  whatever  it  costs  i6/w,"  but, 
''I  will  help  that  child  to  conquer  himself, 
whatever  it  costs  me.''''  And  that  attitude  will 
require,  throughout,  a  sacred  respect  for  the 
child's  own  liberty.  It  is  quite  possible,  in 
this  sense,  to  tie  a  boy  disastrously  to  his 
mother's  apron-strings.  It  is  imperative  that 
the  boy  should  be  brought  to  decisions  of  his 
own  — not  merely  going  through  the  motions 
of  his  mother's  decisions.  This  is  the  secret 
of  the  fatal  weakness  of  character  often  shown 
by  over-trained  children.  On  the  other  hand, 
the  true  conception  is  indicated  by  Dr. 
Matheson :  "The  dearest  moment  to  the 
heart  of  a  parent  is  the  moment  of  a  child's 
spontaneity — the  day  when  it  anticipates  the 
ordinary  command  and   does  the  deed  of  its 


SUGGESTIONS   FROM  CONCRETENESS   OF  THE  REAL   239 

own  accord.''^  For  this  means  moral  insight 
and  choice  on  the  child's  own  part. 

Recognition  of  the  Sacredness  of  the  Person. — 
But  there  must  be  more  than  a  merely  formal 
perception  that  the  other  man  is  a  free  being. 
There  must  be  a  real  recognition  of  the 
sacredness  of  the  person,  of  the  inviolable 
right  to  his  own  individuality.  "For  there  is 
a  modesty  of  the  soul  as  well  as  of  the  body," 
and  an  individuality  that  ought  to  be  respected 
both  by  others  and  by  the  individual  himself. 
In  Brierley's  words,  "each  soul  God  creates 
has  its  own  flavor,  and  we  want  to  taste  that 
flavor.  When  the  young  worker  has  learned 
precisely  what  he  is  as  distinguished  from 
others,  and  gives  us  that  in  whatever  limited 
quantity,  or  sphere  of  operation,  he  becomes 
valuable."^ 

The  very  possibility  of  character  involves 
that  in  a  very  real  sense  every  person  is — what 
Kant  called  him  —  an  end  in  himself.  He  does 
not  exist  simply  for  another  —  this  would 
make  him  a  thing;  and  it  is  the  essence  of 
slavery,  it  has  been  often  said,  to  treat  a 
person  as  a  thing.  The  one  absolutely  dam- 
ning and  deadly  thing  in  all  personal  relations 

-Quoted  by  Du  Bois,  Op.  cit.,  p.  294. 
^Studies  of  the  Soul,  p.   127. 


240  RATIONAL     LIVING 

is  the  spirit  of  contempt.  No  relation  can 
be  what  it  ought  to  be  where  this  spirit  is 
present.  The  employer  must  respect  his 
workmen;  the  mistress  her  maid;  the  speaker 
his  audience ;  the  teacher  his  pupils ;  the 
parent  his  child.  And  this  means  that  one 
must  seek  to  be  continually  at  his  own  best, 
and  must  persistently  aim  to  get  at  the  other's 
best.  Any  other  attitude  simply  cultivates 
distrust  by  others  and  distrust  of  others  that 
sap  both  happiness  and  influence. 

In  every  child  lie  the  possibilities  of  char- 
acter and  happiness  and  influence.  His  des- 
tiny is  his  own;  his  choices  his  own.  Beyond 
a  certain  pretty  definite  limit  no  man  can 
go;  but  far  short  of  that  lies  a  limit  beyond 
which  no  man  —  not  even  the  parent  —  has 
a  right  to  go.  One  of  my  friends  has  never 
been  able  to  forget  the  sense  of  personal 
outrage  she  felt  as  a  little  child,  when  her 
mother,  without  her  consent,  took  the  key  and 
went  through  a  little  doll's  chest  of  drawers 
that  had  been  given  her  as  her  own.  There 
was  nothing  she  cared  specially  to  hide  from 
her  mother,  but  she  felt  that  her  mother  had 
unwarrantably  invaded  her  privacies ;  that 
her  consent  should  have  been  at  least  asked. 
And  I  suspect  the  child  was  right.    Conspic- 


SUGGESTIONS   FROM  CONCRETENESS    OF  THE  REAL  241 

uously  "capable"  and  strong-willed  mothers 
are  particularly  likely  to  err  here  —  they  know 
so  well  exactly  what  it  is  best  that  every 
member  of  their  households  should  wear  and 
say  and  do.  They  are  benevolent  tyrants. 
Now,  one  of  the  inalienable  rights  of  every 
living  being  is  the  right  to  make  at  least 
some  blunders  of  his  own.  And  it  is  better 
that  the  daughter  should  not  always  dress 
most  becomingly  than  that  she  should  never 
have  opportunity  to  miake  decisions  of  her 
own;  the  decisions,  indeed,  must  often  be 
laid  upon  her,  even  against  her  desire. 

And  this  counsel  has  its  application  in  all 
personal  relations.  The  strong-willed  need 
here  to  be  constantly  on  their  guard.  Some 
natures  seem  essentially  tyrannical  everywhere,  * 
even  in  their  closest  friendships.  They  may 
be  very  devoted,  but  they  have  no  respect 
for  the  liberty  or  individuality  of  others ; 
and  they  have  forgotten  Miss  Yonge's  pene- 
trating remark :  "  It  is  a  great  thing  to  sac- 
rifice; but  it  is  a  greater,  to  consent  not  to 
sacrifice  in  one's  own  way."  These  omni- 
scient friends,  who  know  so  much  better 
than  one  does  himself  what  is  good  for  him, 
and  who  insist  upon  his  enjoying  himself  in 
the    ways    they   have    prescribed,  it    must   be 


242  RATIONAL    LIVING 

confessed,  are  something  of  a  trial.  The 
^^  exploiter  of  souls,"  as  Mrs.  Deland  deftly 
names  this  type,  though  often  possessed  of 
some  lovely  traits,  is  truly  not  altogether 
lovely. 

Masterful  races  are  likewise  tempted,  in 
dealing  with  other  peoples,  to  overlook  the 
peculiar  individual  contributions  and  enjoy- 
ments and  points  of  view  of  those  peoples, 
and  to  insist  on  making  them  happy  and 
prosperous  in  the  fashion  of  the  conquer- 
ors. Star  differs  from  star  in  glory;  and 
"the  white  man's  burden"  may  be  under- 
taken in  quite  too  conceited  and  contemp- 
tuous a  spirit.'  That  "certain  blindness  in 
human  nature,"  of  which  Professor  James 
speaks  so  effectively,  shuts  us  out  inevitably 
from  the  best  relations  to  others.^  One  may 
not  interfere  to  the  extent  of  his  power  in 
either  the  character  or  the  happiness  of  an- 
other, however  close  to  one  the  other  may 
be.  Here  lies,  too,  the  fundamental  psy- 
chological error  of  all  communistic  schemes. 

It  is  worth  noticing  that  Paul's  single 
counsel,  as  I  have  elsewhere  pointed  out,' 
concerning   the   training   of   children,   subtly 

*  Talks  on  Psychology,  and  Life's  Ideals,  pp.  229  ff- 
'  The  Appeal  of  the  Child,  pp.  24  ff. 


SUGGESTIONS  FROM  CONCRETENESS  OF  THE  REAL  243 

grows  out  of  this  very  principle,  "  Fathers, 
provoke  not  your  children  to  wrath."  Don't 
trespass  on  the  child's  personality.  Respect 
the  person. 

'We  cannot  make  people  enlightened,  or 
good,  or  happy,  by  compulsion  y  (though 
this  does  not  mean  that  we  are  not  to  do 
all  we  can  to  make  their  environment  whole- 
some and  uplifting) .  So  Erdmann  says,  with 
true  insight,  of  the  enlightened  despotism  of 
Frederick  the  Great,  whose  principle  was 
that  "  the  unenlightened  must  be  compelled 
to  be  rational  and  happy":  "He  came 
to  know  with  sorrow  that  those  who  had 
shaken  off  their  prejudices  at  his  command 
remained  in  bondage  to  him.  The  forty -six 
years  of  their  greatest  king  furnished  per- 
haps the  main  reason  why  the  Prussian  peo- 
ple were  for  so  many  years  destitute  of  en- 
thusiasm, and  therefore  of  capacity,  for  self- 
government.  "^  One  must  sacredly  respect 
the  personality  of  another.  One  must  be- 
lieve in  other  men  —  genuinely  respect  them 
—  if  he  is  to  influence  them  in  a  finally 
high  and  wholesome  way.  The  cynic  cuts 
himself  off,  from  the  beginning,  from  the 
best  and  largest  influence  upon  others.    This 

^History  of  Philosophy,  Vol.  II,  p.  304. 


244  RATIONAL     LIVING 

deep  and  true  estimate  of  others,  moreover, 
is  the  only  road  to  a  genuine,  not  a  false, 
humility. 

Many  a  Friendship  Is  Hurt  by  This  Lack  of 
Respect. — The  delicate  bloom  of  the  grape 
will  not  bear  much  handling.  There  are 
limitations  to  all  intimacies ;  let  us  not  forget 
it.  I  am  not  to  presume  in  my  friendships ; 
I  am  not  to  pry;  I  am  not  to  scold;  I  am 
not  to  take  away  the  possibility  of  decision 
or  choice,  even  with  a  child.  My  child  will 
best  learn  respect  for  personality  from  my 
treatment  of  him.  I  am  not  to  insist  on  the 
explanation  by  my  friend  of  every  mood. 
Every  soul  must  in  much  be  alone  and  ought 
to  be.  One  only  degrades  his  friendships 
when  he  measures  them  by  the  number  of 
liberties  he  takes,  the  number  of  privacies 
he  rides  over  roughshod.  In  all  friendship, 
one  is  to  ask,  not  demand ;  the  door  must 
be  opened  from  within,  it  must  not  be  forced 
from  without.  The  secrets  of  friendship  (like 
those  of  the  Lord)  are  always  with  those 
who  fear.  Those  reverent  of  personality  shall 
alone  see  either  God  or  the  best  in  man.  A 
high-minded  man  can  reveal  himself  only 
to  the  reverent.  So  Granger  says:  "The 
spirit  does  not  entrust  its  deeper  inspirations 


SUGGESTIONS   FROM  CONCRETENESS    OF  THE  REAL   245 

unless  to  those  who  can  guard  them."^  Our 
feehng  in  this  respect  is  not  Hkely  to  be  too 
deHcate.  Like  the  Christ  in  Revelation,  we 
are  to  stand  at  the  door  of  the  heart  only  to 
knock.  We  may  well  cultivate  the  reverence 
which  Goethe  makes  the  essence  of  religion 
— reverence  for  that  which  is  above  us,  for 
that  which  is  beside  us,  for  that  which  is 
beneath  us.  After  all,  the  only  really  sacred 
thing  is  a  person,  and  the  sacredness  of 
all  places  and  things  is  borrowed  from 
persons.  The  teaching  of  Christ  has  as  a 
foundation-stone  such  a  reverence  for  per- 
sonality— reverence  for  man  as  man  because 
each  is  a  child  of  God. 

Moreover,  the  truest  development  in  civi- 
lization is  to  be  seen  only  in  this  deepening 
sense  of  the  sacredness  of  the  person.  There 
is  wo  higher  test  of  the  civilization  of  any  com- 
munity or  nation.  A  nation's  treatment,  thus, 
of  its  women  and  children  and  dependents,  is 
the  surest  measure  of  its  real  progress.  Every 
step  in  the  moral  progress  of  the  race  has 
been  a  step  into  a  growing  reverence  for 
personality.  And  the  depth  of  this  respect 
is  thus  a  delicate  measure  of  one's  own  attain- 
ment.    Reverence    for  another,   therefore,  is 

^  The  Soul  of  the  Christian,  p.  75. 


246  RATIONAL    LIVING 

essential  to  us,  as  well  as  to  the  other.  "He 
who  considers  himself  the  Lord  of  others," 
said  Fichte,  "is  himself  a  slave."  The  con- 
temptuous spirit  is  the  working  of  death  in 
us.  What  one  reckons  the  value  of  his  own 
self  to  be,  what  his  own  claim  on  life  is — 
this  is  necessarily  his  standard  for  the  respect 
due  to  others.  Reverence  for  personality  is 
thus  a  kind  of  guide  for  love  itself.  The 
meaning  of  the  Golden  Rule  to  any  man 
depends  on  how  much  the  self  means  to 
him.  The  most  searching  questions  a  man 
can  put  to  himself,  therefore,  are  just  these: 
How  deep  and  sacred  a  thing  to  me  is  a 
person?   How  significant  is  friendship? 

II.    THE    POWER   OF  PERSONAL  ASSOCIATION 

This  emphasis  on  the  concrete  and  the 
personal  also  suggests  a  second  great  means 
to  happiness,  to  character,  and  to  influence — 
personal  association. 

Influence  of  Imitation. — The  enormous  in- 
fluence of  imitation,  in  the  development  of 
the  individual,  upon  which,  as  we  have  seen, 
both  Baldwin  and  Royce  lay  such  emphasis, 
points  at  once  to  the  primary  importance  of 
personal   association.    And    it    holds   for   the 


SUGGESTIONS   FROM  CONCRETENESS  OF  THE  REAL  247 

entire  range  of  human  activities,  even  the 
purely  intellectual.  Thus  Sully  points  out,  for 
example:  "A  child  will  profit  more  by  daily 
companionship  with  an  acute  observer,  be  he 
teacher  or  playfellow,  than  by  all  systematic 
attempts  to  train  the  senses."^  "The  deepest 
spring  of  action  in  us  is  the  sight  of  action 
in  another,"  James  says.  ^'The  spectacle  of 
effort  is  what  awakens  and  sustains  our  own 
effort."  One  of  the  most  valuable  and  promis- 
ing recent  gains  in  the  educational  life  of  the 
country  is  the  tendency  to  make  much  more 
of  the  distinctly  social  possibilities  of  our 
public  schools.  We  can  spare  nowhere  the 
power  of  personal  association. 

One  Must  Be  Won  to  Character. — Again,  just 
because  character  is  what  it  is,  and  must  have 
liberty  as  a  condition,  its  great  means,  for  our- 
selves and  others,  cannot  be  force,  precept, 
or  command,  but  the  winning  to  a  free 
choice — to  an  inner  response.  One  must  be 
attracted  toward  it.  For  it  can  come  only  of 
our  own  will.  And  attraction  is  precisely 
what  occurs  in  personal  association.  Simi- 
larly, since  happiness  cannot  be  commanded, 
but  comes  only  on  conditions  which  are  inner 
even  more    than  outer,   these  conditions  are 

^  op.  cit.,  p.  214. 


248  RATIONAL     LIVING 

likely  to  be  preeminently  personal.  And  of 
influence,  it  is  manifestly  true  that  its  very 
possibility  depends  upon  the  fact  that  we  are 
members  one  of  another;  and  one's  influence, 
therefore,  will  count  in  direct  proportion  as 
the  laws  of  personal  association  are  carefully 
observed. 

IVe  Are  Made  for  Personal  Relations. — But 
it  is  chiefly  just  because  we  are  personal  and 
made  for  personal  relations  that  we  may  be 
sure  that  the  chief  means  to  character  and 
happiness  and  influence  is  personal  asso- 
ciation. Character  is  caught,  not  taught,  and 
happiness  and  influence  have  their  highest 
source  in  friendship.  This  emphasis  upon  the 
fact  that  character  comes  rather  by  contagion 
than  by  teaching,  is,  of  course,  not  intended 
to  deny  the  moral  value  of  insight,  for  this  is 
involved  in  the  very  unity  of  the  mind, 
already  dwelt  upon.^  But,  as  Du  Bois  says, 
here  "our  need  is  less  a  matter  of  direct 
teaching  and  preaching  than  of  atmospheric 
influence — example,  suggestion,  pure  speech, 
gentle  manner,  sweet  temper,  strong  hand- 
ling, firm  stepping  in  virtue."^  Indeed,  the 
child    rather   resents    direct    moralizing ;    and 

1  Cf.  Paulsen,  A  System  of  Ethics,  pp.  26,  40,  58,  etc. 
^Tlffl^aiuralWay,  p.  137. 


SUGGESTIONS   FROM  CONCRETENESS   OF  THE  REAL   249 

the  insistence  on  drawing  the  moral  may  even 
distinctly  lessen  the  power  of  story  or 
example;  not  chiefly,  I  think,  because  mora- 
lizing is  abstract,  but  because  it  seems  to 
press  in  too  closely  and  unwarrantably  on  the 
child's  inner  personality/ 

One  Cannot  Learn  to  Love  Alone. — More- 
over, if  love  is  the  all-inclusive  virtue,  the 
highest  happiness,  and  the  highest  sphere  of 
influence,  then  character  and  happiness  and 
influence,  alike,  must  come  chiefly  in  associa- 
tion. One  cannot  learn  to  love  alone.  We 
need,  for  our  very  life,  much  common  demo- 
cratic association  with  men.  It  is  the  business 
of  life  to  learn  to  fulfil  wisely  and  faithfully 
the  common  personal  relations  of  life,  and  we 
shall  not  learn  this  in  a  vacuum.^  This,  some 
one  has  nobly  said,  "is  the  highest  and  richest 
education  of  a  human  nature  —  not  an  instruc- 
tion, not  a  commandment,  but  a  friend." 

Personal  Association  the  Greatest  Means.  — 
Leaving  to  one  side,  now,  the  special  con- 
sideration of  happiness  and  influence  — 
though  inferences  as  to  both  will  be  con- 
tinually implied — let  us  note  that,  besides 
work,  and    more  than   work,  personal  associa- 

1  Cf.  King,  Personal  and  Ideal  Elements  in  Education,  pp.  191  flf. 
"^Cf.  King,   Op.  cit.,  pp.  112  ff. 


250  RATIONAL    LIVING 

tion  is  the  one  great  hopeful  means  to  character; 
and  in  the  long  run  this  conviction  must  af- 
fect profoundly  all  our  religious  conceptions.^ 
Whence  come  our  greatest  convictions, 
our  deepest  faiths?  From  personal  associa- 
tions. Personal  contact  and  impression  of 
character  count  more  here  than  all  argu- 
ment. You  find  yourself  responding  like  a 
vibrating  chord  to  the  note  of  your  friend. 
His  faith  and  life  become  the  firmest 
ground  for  yours.  You  catch  his  conviction, 
his  spirit.  It  may  well  be  a  relief  to  a  con- 
scientious but  growing  teacher,  that  it  is 
not  a  man's  individual  propositions,  so  much 
as  the  general  trend  of  his  thinking,  his 
spirit,  his  tone,  his  atmosphere,  which  re- 
main with  others.  This  total  result  now  be- 
comes in  them,  too,  a  living  germ^  going  on 
to  grow  in  them  as  in  him.  It  is  not  prop- 
ositions, not  definitions,  not  demonstrations, 
that  give  inspiration,  but  the  touch  of  life. 
As  James  says  of  the  prophet:  "Just  as  our 
courage  is  so  often  a  reflex  of  another's 
courage,  so  our  faith  is  apt  to  be,  as  Max 
Miiller  somewhere  says,  a  faith  in  some 
one  else's  faith.  We  draw  new  life  from 
the  heroic  example.   The  prophet  has  drunk 

^Cf.  King,  Reconstruction  in  Theology,  Chapters  XI-XIl. 


SUGGESTIONS  FROM  CONCRETENESS  OF  THE  REAL  251 

more  deeply  than  any  one  of  the  cup  of 
bitterness,  but  his  countenance  is  so  unshaken 
and  he  speaks  such  mighty  words  of  cheer, 
that  his  will  becomes  our  will,  and  our  life 
is  kindled  at  his  own."^ 

This  is  no  strange  thought  among  men 
who  have  cared  for  character.  Even  Kant, 
with  all  the  rigor  of  his  moral  theory,  knew 
that  morals  could  be  taught  effectively  only 
by  example.  It  is  quite  in  line  with  this 
that  Professor  Everett,  in  his  Ethics  for 
Young  People^  advises  that  each  child  should 
keep  a  book  of  heroes.  Almost  all  Fichte's 
popular  works  turn  upon  the  thought  of 
the  personal  vocation  of  the  scholar,  as  the 
great  inspirer  of  men.  Carlyle,  who  felt 
Fichte  profoundly,  characteristically  protests 
against  morals  by  argument:  ^'  Foolish  word- 
monger  and  motive- grinder,  that  in  thy 
logic  mill  hast  an  earthly  mechanism  for  the 
Godlike  itself,  and  would'st  fain  grind  n\Q 
out  virtue  from  the  husks  of  pleasure  —  I 
tell  thee.  Nay."  "  Nay,"  he  asks,  ^^  has  not, 
perhaps,  the  motive -grinder  himself  been 
in  love  ?" 

Not  to  mention  the  many  names  that 
might  be  added  to  the  list,  who  see  in  per- 

^  Psychology,  Vol.  II,  p.  373, 


252  RATIONAL    LIVING 

sonal  association  the  great  means  to  charac- 
ter, let  me  simply  remind  you  of  three 
characteristic  and  particularly  notable  and 
influential  utterances  of  the  last  sixty  years, 
published  twenty  years  apa'^t  and  yet  all 
turning  upon  this  single  thought  :  Dr. 
Bushnell's  sermon  on  Unconscious  Influence^ 
preached  in  1846,  that  has  been  the  inspi- 
ration of  more  sermons,  perhaps,  than  any 
other  sermon  ever  preached  in  America; 
Professor  Seeley's  Ecce  Homo^  published  in 
1866,  with  its  living  emphasis  on  Jesus'  con- 
tagious "  enthusiasm  of  humanity"  ;  and  Pro- 
fessor Drummond's  addresses,  The  Greatest 
Thing  in  the  World,  and  The  Changed  Life, 
delivered  in  1889,  that  go  deeper,  perhaps, 
than  anything  else  he  ever  wrote  in  the  in- 
dication of  the  supreme  method  in  the 
moral  and  spiritual  life  —  changing  into  the 
image  of  Christ  through  persistent  associa- 
tion with  him.  The  world  will  not  willingly 
let  any  of  these  die.  They  strike  the  key- 
note of  character. 

"Ideas,"  George  Eliot  says,  "are  often  poor 
ghosts ;  our  sun-filled  eyes  cannot  discern  them 
—  they  pass  athwart  us  in  their  vapor,  and  can- 
not make  themselves  felt.  But  sometimes  they 
are   made   flesh ;    they  breathe   upon  us  with 


SUGGESTIONS  FROM  CONCRETENESS  OF  THE  REAL  253 

warm  breath,  they  touch  us  with  soft  respon- 
sive hands,  they  look  at  us  with  sad  sincere 
eyes,  and  speak  to  us  in  appealing  tones; 
they  are  clothed  in  a  living  human  soul,  with 
all  its  conflicts,  its  faith,  and  its  love.  Then 
their  presence  is  a  power,  then  they  shake 
us  like  a  passion,  and  we  are  drawn  after 
them  with  gentle  compulsion,  as  flame  is 
drawn  to  flame."  Miinsterberg,  in  his  Psy- 
chology and  Life^  bears  the  same  testimony 
as  a  psychologist,  in  terms  almost  as  strong. 
"  Only  a  conscience  which  is  penetrated  by 
morality  stands  safe  in  all  storms,  and  such 
a  conscience  is  not  brought  out  by  technical 
prescriptions,  nor  by  punishments  and  jails; 
no,  only  by  the  obligatory  power  of  will 
upon  will,  by  the  inspiring  life  of  subjects 
we  acknowledge,  by  the  example  of  the  he- 
roes of  duty,  that  speaks  directly  from  will 
to  will,  and  for  which  we  cannot  substitute 
psychological    training    and    police  officers."^ 

"And  so  the  Word  had  breath  and  wrought 
With  human  hands  the  creed  of  creeds 
In  loveliness  of  perfect  deeds, 
More  strong  than  all  poetic  thought." 

Christ  himself  built  his  kingdom  on  twelve 
men,  and  their  personal  association  with  him. 

'O/.  cit.,  pp.  176,  177. 


254  RATIONAL    LIVING 

Facing  the  whole  problem  of  character  for 
all  his  disciples  in  all  time,  he  deliberately 
makes  the  one  great  means,  personal  relation 
to  himself,  not  the  acceptance  of  certain 
methods  or  principles  or  ideas  or  machinery. 
None  of  his  teaching  is  in  abstract  proposi- 
tions ;  there  are  no  scientific  definitions  or 
demonstrations.  All  is  immediate  and  vital. 
It  is  not  a  system,  fixed  and  dead,  but  a 
seed  of  life.  The  most  conserving  and  inspir- 
ing of  all  influences  is  the  love  of  a  holy 
person.  The  most  effective  possible  way  in 
which  we  can  put  ourselves  in  the  presence 
of  the  great  objective  forces  and  causes  and 
values,  and  be  sure  that  our  own  interest 
and  enthusiasm  in  them  shall  be  keen  and 
abiding,  is  through  close  and  persistent  asso- 
ciation with  those  persons  in  whom  the 
great  values  of  life  are  already  dominant. 
This  whole  psychological  emphasis  upon  per- 
sonal association,  thus,  drives  the  thoughtful 
man  back  to  the  supreme  importance  of 
close  touch  with  the  great  persons  of  history 
and,  above  all,  with  the  supreme  person  of 
history  —  Jesus  Christ.  The  best  can  come 
to  us  only  by  this  objective  and  personal 
method. 

Upon  the  side  of  influence,  of  course,  this 


SUGGESTIONS   FROM  CONCRETENESS   OF  THE  REAL  255 

principle  means  that  the  fundamental  condi- 
tion must  be,  that  we  should  be  what  we 
would  have  others  become,  that  genuine  char- 
acter and  conviction  must  be  back  of  all 
expression.  Ultimately,  we  have  nothing  to 
give  to  others  but  ourselves.  There  is,  thus, 
no  cheap  way  in  which  a  man  may  count 
profoundly  for  good.  He  must  be  what  he 
ought  to  be ;  he  must  aim  to  keep  himself 
persistently  at  his  best ;  within  this  limit  of 
his  persistent  best  he  must  be  willing  to 
give  himself  unstintedly  to  others,  sharing, 
directly  or  indirectly,  his  best  with  them. 
With  the  young  this  involves  patient,  steady 
training  into  the  loving  life,  putting  them 
into  some  real  service  of  others,  and,  so  far 
as  we  can,  through  our  honest  witness  and 
spirit,  putting  them  in  the  presence  of  the 
best  we  ourselves  have  found.  Even  here  we 
are  not  to  over- moralize.  Association  and 
work  are  the  great  dependence.  This  is  the 
costly  way  to  effective  living.  But  if  the  life 
of  the  loving  God  is  also  the  life  of  supreme 
felicity,  this  costly  way  to  influence  is  at  the 
same  time  the  royal  road  to  happiness. 

The  two  great  psychological  principles  now 
passed  in  review — the  central  importance  of 
action,  and  the  emphasis  on  the  concrete — 


256  RATIONAL    LIVING 

underlie  most  of  the  important  educational 
counsel  of  our  time: — (i)  Express  your 
thought  or  feeling,  put  it  into  act;  and  (2) 
consider  the  relatedness  of  things.  Each  has 
many  applications  beyond  what  it  has  been 
possible  forme  to  suggest;  and  each  should 
be  a  growing  principle  in  every  life. 

The  resulting  suggestions  for  living  seem 
to  have  given  us  the  really  supreme  conditions 
and  means  for  character,  for  influence,  and 
for  happiness  —  the  supreme  factors  in  the 
largest  and  richest  life,  and  so  of  the  spiritual 
life  as  well.  There  are  many  subsidiary  prin- 
ciples. I  think  there  are  none  of  equal  im- 
portance. The  three  great  conditions  are  self- 
control,  objectivity,  and  respect  for  person- 
ality ;  the  three  great  means  are  the  practice 
of  self-control,  work,  and  personal  association. 
Of  these,  self-control  comes  back  finally  to 
the  two  others.  When  would  the  other  con- 
ditions and  means  become  ideal?  When  our 
work  could  be  taken  as  a  God-given  work 
to  which  we  could  commit  ourselves  without 
misgiving  or  reserve,  and  in  which,  thus,  we 
might  lose  ourselves  with  complete  objec- 
tivity. When  the  personal  association  was 
with  the  highest — with  God  himself,  made 
real  and  concrete  to  us  in  his  character  and 


SUGGESTIONS  FROM  CONCRETENESS  OF  THE  REAL  257 

love  through  the  personal  life  of  Christ,  and 
individualized  for  each  one  in  his  spiritual 
presence  in  us,  constant  and  most  intimate, 
but  unobtrusive,  leaving  our  own  liberty 
sacredly  guarded. 

Just  these  ideal  conditions  to  which  psy- 
chology leads  us,  Christ  declares  to  be  actual. 
His  prayer  for  his  disciples  included  just  these 
two  requests — for  the  divine  association,  for 
a  God -given  work:  ''Keep  them  in  thy 
name" — in  the  divine  association;  "Sanctify 
them  in  the  truth.  As  thou  dids't  send  me 
into  the  world,  even  so  send  I  them  into  the 
world."  Set  them  apart  even  as  I  am  set 
apart,  unto  a  divinely  given  mission.  No  life 
can  fail  in  character,  in  influence,  or  in  hap- 
piness, for  whom  these  two  requests— with 
their  implied  self-control  —  are  granted.  To 
find  the  Great  Companion,  and  the  work 
he  gives — this  is  the  sum  of  all. 

Or,  to  come  at  the  matter  in  a  slightly 
different  way,  Christ  has  one  all-inclusive 
principle  :  life  through  self-sacrifice — saving 
the  life  by  losing  it — love.  This,  in  his  teach- 
ing, clearly  means  three  things :  habitual 
self-control ;  devotion  to  the  work  given  us 
to  do — facing  exactly  our  situation  ;  and  giv- 
ing   ourselves    in   our   personal    relations   to 


258  RATIONAL    LIVING 

Others.  The  corresponding  moods  required 
are :  in  self-control,  deliberation  in  face  of 
impulse ;  in  devotion  to  work,  objectivity ; 
in  personal  association,  respect  for  person- 
ality. Now,  consecration  to  the  will  of  God, 
as  Christ  conceives  the  matter,  covers  all — 
this  supreme  giving  of  the  self  including  all 
subordinate  givings.  For  consecration  to  the 
will  of  God  means  the  willing  obedience  to 
the  laws  of  our  nature,  recognized  as  from 
God — the  subordination  of  the  lower  to  the 
higher — self-control.  It  means  devotion  to  the 
work  given  us  to  do.  It  means  yielding  to 
the  supreme  association  with  the  loving  God, 
and  hence  love  for  men.  A  self-sacrificing 
or  self-giving  love,  thus,  is  for  Christ  the  whole. 
In  a  word,  the  supreme  condition  of  love 
is  reverence  for  the  person,  of  which  self- 
control  is  simply  a  genuine  expression ;  and 
the  unselfish  objectivity  of  love  is  at  the  same 
time  the  highest  mood  of  work.  It  is  the 
faith  of  the  Christian  that,  through  the  love 
of  God,  he  is  in  the  divine  association,  and 
set  apart  unto  his  work — sent  as  Christ  was 
sent.  And  in  this  love  of  God  for  men  he 
finds  his  own  measure  of  the  reverence  due 
the  person  of  his  fellows,  and  so  his  highest 
motive   to   self-control.   To   him,  too,  it  be- 


SUGGESTIONS  FROM  CONCRETENESS  OF  THE  REAL  259 

longs  to  claim  his  part  in  the  inheritance 
promised  in  Christ's  words — "that  the  love 
wherewith  thou  lovest  me  maybe  in  them"; 
and,  in  his  measure,  at  the  end  to  say — 
"Father,  I  have  finished  the  work  which  thou 
gavest  me  to  do."  And  It  is  impossible  that 
one  should  be  all  he  ought  to  be  in  work  and 
association,  without  clear  recognition  of  the 
complexity  and  paradoxes  of  life,  and  faithful 
fulfilment  of  the  conditions  involved  in  the 
unity  of  his  nature.  Our  four  great  inferences 
are  thus  brought  together  into  one. 


INDEX 


Acquaintance,  a  growth  and  active  achieve- 
ment, 44. 

Action,  and  will,  of  central  importance,  3,4; 
in  fixing  habit,  9z;  may  not  safely  yield 
place  to  insights  or  feelint,  iz8;  born  of 
will,  reveals  man,  14;;  Hoffding  on,  145  ; 
Stanley  Hall  on,  145;  impulse  to,  funda- 
mental, 146  ff;  natural  terminus  of  every 
experience,  149  ff;  neutral  orjanism  a 
machine  for  (James),  150;  muscular  sys- 
tem organized  for,  150  ff;  Professor  Hall 
on,  150  R;  mind  organized  for,  ij}  ff; 
James  on,  15  j;  even  necessary  for 
thought  and  feeling,  154  S;  central 
importance  of,  shown  in  influence  of 
practical  interests,  161  ff;  enormous 
place  of,  in  life,  176  ff. 

Activities,  of  mind,  reciprocal,  103;  Starr 
and  Sully  on  harmonious  development  of, 
105,  104;   Royce  on,  104  ff. 

Activity,  no,  at  its  best  when  attention  is 
centered  on  self,  igz  ff;  man  created  for, 

20i  ff. 

Activity,  intellectual,  opposed  functions  of, 
24  ff;  general  forms  or  types  of,  4;  ff; 
effect  of  mental,  on  body,  56  ff;  of  will 
on  muscular,  ;S  ff;  bodily,  a  contributor 
to  spiritual  and  religious  life,  60,  9J,  100 
ff;  a  necessity  to  bodily  health,  6$  ff; 
need  to  guard  against  fatigue  in,  70; 
psychical  effects  of,  77  ff;  imitative,  in 
development  of  self-consciousness,  Bald- 
win on,  148;  need  of,  for  inadequately 
trained,  151  ff;  Wundt  on,  expressive, 
157;  required  for  growth,  158. 

Adolescence.  Hall  on  peculiar  power  of 
active  instincts  in,  150  ff ;  Lecky  on,  151. 

Americans,  in  need  of  warning,  76;  over- 
activity of,  209, 


Aristippus,  the  Cyrenaic,  principle  of,  182. 

Aristotle,  on  best  mental  habits,  24. 

Arnold,  Matthew,  on  conduct  and  life,  17J. 

Art,  has  power  through  concrete  appeal, 
214. 

Asceticism,  ignoring  of  the  particular,  the 
common  error  of,  45;  recognized  bodily 
conditions,  47;  failure  of,  48;  lesson  of 
natural  science  concerning,  48  ff;  the 
true  place  of,  93  ff ;  good  only  as  means, 
95;  Harnack  on,  97;  Pfleiderer  on,  98; 
psychological  basis  for,  99;  Paul  on  the 
true,  99;  the  history  of,  a  protest  against 
love  of  ease,   101;    Bishop  Westcott  on, 

lOI. 

Association,  personal,  the  greatest  means  to 
happiness,  character,  and  influence,  246 
ff;  greatest  convictions  from,  250;  James 
on  power  of,  250;  Bushnell,  Seeley,  and 
Drummond  on,  252;  George  Eliot  on,  25Z 
ff;  Mansterberg  on,  253;  Christ's  exam- 
ple for,  253  ff;  to  have  value,  inrolres 
keeping  ourselves  at  our  best,  ISS- 

Atlantic  Monthly,  referred  to,  IJZ. 

Atomism,  revolt  against,  108. 

Attention,  nerve  power  the  chief  factor  in, 
67  ff;  power  of,  the  basis  of  self-control, 
69,  74,  i6i ;  Mosso  on,  69;  opportunity 
for  will-training  in,  90;  concentration  of, 
leads  to  action,  153  ff;  the  will  in,  159  ff; 
requires  large  circle  of  interests,  191. 

Augustine,  referred  to,  112;  quoted  by 
Granger  on  deffoiteness  in  thinking, 
123  ff. 

Baldwin,  on  unity  of  mind  and  body,  63; 
on  imitative  activity,  148;  law  of  dynamo- 
genesis,  150;  emphasis  on  imitation,  171; 
referred  to,  246. 


(261) 


262 


INDEX 


Barnes,  referred  to,  l6z. 

Barric,  quoted,  Z7. 

Bawden,  Professor,  summary  of  "pragma- 
tism," 219  ff- 

Beard,  on  brain-fag,  68. 

Belief,  the  normal  state,  iz6. 

Berkeley,  referred  to,  108. 

Berlin,  university  students  in,  170. 

Bible,  value  in  concreteness,  Z15. 

Biedermann,  on  religion,  38. 

Birrell,  Augustine,  on  hurtful  intellectual 
habits,  124;   on  Charles  Lamb,  Z33  il. 

Bishop  of  Exeter,  referred  to,  4J. 

Blood,  need  of  well-oxygenated,  64  ff ;  need 
of,  for  sanity,  6;;  Starr  on,  referred  to, 
6s;  Coming's  experiments  in  circulation 
of,  6s;  Mosso's  emphasis  on  quality  of,  65  ; 
LaGrange's  emphasis  on,  65;  fatigue,  a 
poisoning  of,  65  ff;  not  the  chief  factor 
in  attention,  67;  circulation  of,  looks  to 
action,  149. 

Bodily  conditions,  basis  of  true  living,  48 
S;  not  a  denial  of  spiritual  life,  so,  S}; 
effects  of  feeling  on,  S5  ;  underlie  charac- 
ter, 64,  74;  in  the  religious  life,  74  ff; 
a  means  of  power,  Professor  Jastrow  on, 
78. 

Bodily  functions,  dependent  on  self-control. 
85. 

Body,  the,  not  evil  per  se,  94  ff ;  influenced 
by  the  mind,  78  ff;  by  joyful  emotions, 
IJ5  ff;  organized  for  action,  149  ff ;  looks 
to  personal  associations.  229  ff, 

Bowne,  referred  to,  108. 

Erackett,  Miss,  on  rest,  80;  on  effect  of 
painful  emotion,  136;   referred  to,  236. 

Bradley,  referred  to.  194. 

Brain,  psychical  states  and,  si  ff ;  James  on, 
51;  effects  of  feeling  on.  s6. 

Brain-fag,  diminishes  power  of  inhibition, 
68;  Americans  peculiarly  liable  to,  76; 
prevents  success,  76,  77. 

Brierlcy,  on  dogma,  229;  en  lacredness  of 
the  person,  239. 

Browning,  quoted,  29,  loz,  184. 

Burnham,  Dr.  W.  H.,  on  economic  brain 
action,  70;  on  effect  of  work  on  nerve- 
Cells,  71;  on  the  sense  perception),  71  ff; 
referred  to,  67. 


Bushnell,  referred  to,  8z;  on  unconscious 

inhuence,  252. 
Butler,  Bishop,  referred  to,  141,  IS4. 

CcEsar,  referred  to,  126. 

Call,  Miss,  referred  to,  8z,  8j. 

Carlyle,  referred  to,  126;  Seeley  on,  is8; 
in  Sartor  liesartus,  167  ff;  on  work,  201 
ff ;  on  character  by  example,  Z51. 

Chalmers.  Dr.,  sermon  on  The  Expulsive 
Power  of  a  New  Affection,  190. 

Chamberlain,  on  Mosso,  referred  to,  67. 

Character,  paradox  in  choice  of,  and  life- 
work,  ji  ff;  James  on,  32;  requires  both 
self-assertion  and  self-surrender,  Royce 
on,  34;  not  a  magical  inheritance,  44  ff; 
has  bodily  conditions,  64  ff;  has  psychical 
conditions,  no  ff;  in  the  sphere  of  i.he 
will,  177  ff;  self-control  fundamental  to, 
180  ff;  problem  of,  of  fixing  attention, 
191;  objectivity  a  prime  condition  of, 
192;  work  a  chief  means  to,  igS  ff;  inner 
life  source  of,  Z37  ff;  possibility  of,  im- 
plies that  each  person  is  an  end  in  him- 
self, 239;  not  to  be  compelled,  243; 
persona!  association  a  means  to,  246  ff; 
persuasion  a  means  to,  247;  caught,  not 
taught,  248. 

Christ,  the  great  Person,  192,  2S4;  in 
Revelation,  24s ;  built  kingdom  on  ten 
men  (association)  253  ff;  actualizes  ideal 
conditions  for  living,  256  ff;  his  teaching, 
Z57ff. 

Christianity,  not  two  kinds  of,  96  ff;  Har- 
nack  on,  97. 

Classicism  referred  to.  zzz. 

Clouston.  Dr.,  on  inhibitory  power,  70. 

Coe,  referred  to,  67;  on  modern  conception 
of  religious  life,  235. 

Coleridge,  referred  to,  Z33,  Z34. 

Comparative  psychology,  8. 

Complexity  of  life,  3,  s  ff;  does  not  mean 
confusion,  5;  psychological  grounds  for, 
7ff. 

Compromise,  Lecky  on,  39  ff. 

Concreteness  of  the  real,  Zio  ff,  Z20. 

Conditions,  only  through  fulfilment  of,  does 
man  have  power  over  nature,  39;  Lecky's 
Mat    of   I-'f''    39;     underlie    all    great 


INDEX 


263 


achievement,  44;  only  in  particulars,  4;; 
but  see  Royce,  45  ff;  need  of  pointing 
out  exact  conditions  of  life,  46  ff: 

unity  of  man,  first  condition,  46;  bodily, 

the   basis  of  spiritual   life,   48  ff,  64; 

bodily,  not  omnipotent,   79;    psychical 

necessary,  no  S;  volitional  necessary, 

144  ff. 

Consciousness,    preceded     by    impulse    to 

action,    147;     naturally    impulsive,    153; 

influence  of  practical  interests  in,  161  H; 

all  related,  zii ;   fundamental  convictions 

of,  involved   in  emphasis   upon  concrete, 

228. 

Conservation     of    energy,    and     psychical 

states,  51  fl;  James  on,  52. 
Convictions,      fundamental,     of      supreme 
value,  128;  practical  interests  in,  166  <!; 
of  consciousness  involved  in  concrete, 228; 
greatest,  from  personal   associations,  250. 
Corning,  referred  to,  65,  67,  72;   rules  for 
increasing   nerve    power,   82;    on    brain 
exhaustion,  83. 
Cowles,  Dr.,  on  symptoms  of  fatigue,  72. 

Dawson,  interest  of  child  in  persons,  231. 

Decision,  26;  Tomm,  and  Grizel,  27;  Sully 
on,  27;  Palmer  on,  27  ff;  should  not  be 
made  in  weak  moment,  141, 

Deland,  Mrs.,  referred  to,  24Z, 

DeQuincy,  referred  to,  129. 

Descartes,  referred  to,  12;. 

Dewey,  referred  to,  156;  application  of 
Ideological  principle,  164,  172;  on  society 
in  terms  of  action,  174;  genetic  method, 
219. 

Discrimination,  and  assimilation,  24;  of 
values  in  life,  29. 

Diffusion,  Law  of,  55  ff. 

Dilthey,  on  life  and  the  notion,  213;  re- 
ferred to, 230. 

Docility  and  initiative,  Royce  on,  33  ff. 

Doubt,  function  of,  provisional  and  tem- 
porary, 126. 

Dresslar,  referred  to,  67. 

Drudgery,  Gannett  on,  206  ff. 

Drummond,  referred  to,  41;  on  character 
by  association,  252. 

Dualism,  questioned,  S3- 


Du  Bois,  Patterson,  referred  to,  231,  236, 
239;  on  fatherhood,  238;  on  personal 
relations  as  means  to  c!.aracter,  2',3. 

Dunn,  Martha  Baker,  quoted,  :$Z. 

Duties,  significance  of,  42  ff. 

Duty,  the  demands  of,  and  bodily  interests, 
94  ff;   Herrmann  on,  184. 

Dynamogenesis,  law  of,  150. 

Ecce  Homo,  referred  to,  I89,  252. 

Ecclesiastes,  referred  to,  169. 

Education,  valuable  for  endurance,  12; 
tested  by  number  of  interests,  13;  Sully, 
Volkmann,  and  Royce  on,  13;  opportuni- 
ties for  will-training  in,  88  ff;  danger  in, 
127;  protest  needed  in  interest  of  whole 
man,  227  ff. 

Educational  counsel  of  our  time,  256. 

Elective  system,  abuse  of,  134. 

Eliot,  George,  referred  to,  on  contagion  of 
ideas,  252  ff. 

Elijah,  referred  to,  202. 

Emerson,  referred  to,  74. 

Emotion,  paradoxes  in,  30;  proper  control 
of,  82,  187  ff;  influence  of,  on  body  and 
mind,  135  ff;  bearing  of,  on  volition,  137 
ff;  danger  of  sham,  138  ff;  healthful,  not 
manufactured,    139;     danger   of   passive, 

141  ff;  need  of  power  to  withstand  strong, 

142  ff;  James  on,  143;  Jastrow  on,  143; 
Hoffding  on,  144;  controlled  only 
through  attention  or  action,  187;  Hoff- 
ding on  control  of,  188;  Royce  on,  188  ff; 
Ecce  Homo  on,  189;  Spinoza,  and  Paul, 
as  James  quotes  him,  i8g  ff;  Dr.  Chal- 
mers, referred  to,  igo. 

Emphases,    psychological,    current,   171    ff; 

on  persons  and  personal   relations,  2z8  ff. 
Emphasis,  psychological,  on  complexity  o{ 

life,  ;  ff;  on  paradox  o':  life,  2Z  ff;    oa 

conditions,  39  ff;  on  central  importanca 

of  will  and  action,  145  ff. 
Empirical  sciences,  Windelband  on,  224  ff 
Encyclopedia  'Britannica,  referred  to,  211. 
Ends  and  means,  paradox  in,  22. 
Environment,  not  the  entire,  but  what  claimt 

attention,  makes  man,  i;g. 
Erdmann,   on   man   as   subject    of    modern 

philosophy,  8j  referred  to,  9;  on  paradoil 


264 


INDEX 


in  reliciou,  31 ;  on  despotism  of  Frederick 
the  Great,  243. 

Essence  only  meaning  of,  teleoloeical, 
l6zff. 

Ererett,  aeainst  Neitsche,  on  friendship, 
38;  referred  to,  251. 

Exclusiveness,  nowhere  justified,  16  fJ;  his- 
tory of  philosophy  against,  18. 

Evolution,  suggestion  of,  146;  definite  set- 
ting forth  of  theory,  ii8. 

Exercise,  bodily,  volitional  as  well  as 
physical  in  effects,  59;  leed  of  wisdom 
in,  66  ff;  Corning  on,  67;  LaGrange, 
quoted  on,  67;  Dr.  Gulick  on,  75;  Her- 
bert Spencer  on,  75;  value  of  "unneces- 
sary," 99. 

Experience,  meaning  of,  9;  dependent  on 
range  of  interests,  10;  action  the  natural 
terminus  of,  149  S. 

Experiences,  terminate  in  action,  4;  Royce 
on  sensory,  104  S\  cannot  be  sought  as 
ends,  140. 

Experimental  psychology,  Kiilpe  on,  2; 
defined,  8;    Mosso  in,  56;  Henle  in,  56  ff. 

Experiments,  of  Mosso,  56;  of  Henle.  56  ff : 
of  Du  Bois  Reymond,  57;  of  Dr.  Sequin, 
57;  in  New  York  State  Reformatory,  58; 
of  Corning,  on  circulation,  65;  of  Dr. 
Hodge  on  nerve-cells,  71. 

Expression,  necessary  to  life.  199. 

Faith,  physiological  effect  of,  83;  Dr. 
George  E.  Gorham  on,  83  ff;  implied  in 
willingness  to  use  powers,  169. 

Fatigue,  a  poisoning  of  the  blood,  6;; 
effects  of,  67  ff;  effect  of,  on  nerve  con- 
ditions, 70  ff;  effects  of,  on  perceptions 
and  activities,  71  ff;  Mosso  on,  6s,  66,  72; 
Dr.  Cowles  on  symptoms  of,  72;  intel- 
lectually and  morally  dangerous,  73. 

Fichte,  referred  to,  147,  172,251;  on  voca- 
tion, 167;  on  respect  for  personality,  246. 

Foster,  John,  on  decision  of  character,  91. 

Frederick  the  Great,  referred  to,  243. 

Freedom,  dependent  on  wide  range  of  inter- 
ests, 12;  moral,  of  others,  must  be 
respected,  236  ff. 

Fremantle,  referred  to,  20;   quoted,  156. 

French  enlightenment,  referred  to,  18. 


Friendship,  significance  of,  according  to 
Ritschl,  37;  Everett  against  Neitsche  on, 
38;  an  important  psychological  motive, 
231  ff;  many  a,  hurt  by  lack  of  respect, 
244. 

Gannett,    referred    to,    43;    on    drudgery, 

206  ff. 
"Genius  and  old-fogyism,"  25. 
Goethe,  referred  to,  94,  195,245;   Carlyle's 

recognition   of,   158;     on    theme    of    the 

world's  history,  169. 
Gorham,   Dr.   George    E.,   on   physiological 

effects  of  faith,  83  ff. 
Granger,  Augustine,  quoted  by,  123  ff;    St. 

Teresa,   on   sham   graces,    139;    quoted, 

244  ff. 
Granville,    Dr.  J.  M.,  on    surplus    nervous 

energy,  70;  on  nerve  power  as  the  force 

of  life,  79;  on  brain  work  and  worry,  83; 

on  work,  203. 
Growth,    physical     conditions    of,    64    ff; 

psychical  conditions  of,  no  ff ;  in  charac- 
ter, two  theories  of,  194  ff. 
Gulick,  on  exercise,  75. 

Habit,  physical  basis  of,  61,  87;  time-limit 
in,  61,  86;  James  or.  62,  86  ff;  phe- 
nomena of,  illustrate  unity  of  body  and 
mind,  85;  significance  o.  for  mental  life, 
86;  in  education,  88;  Ja'  i-s' maxims  on, 
go  ff ;   fixed  by  action  alon;    92. 

Habits,  intellectual,  as  helps,  113  ff;  as 
hindrances,  124  ff;  of  study,  dangers  in, 
133. 

Hale,  Edward  Everett,  referred  to.  Si. 

Hall,  G.  Stanley,  on  muscle-habits  and  will, 
59;  on  physical  culture  in  will  training, 
95;  on  danger  in  study  of  philosophy, 
124  ;  on  need  of  living  out  theories,  129; 
on  abuse  of  elective  system,  134;  on  will 
and  action,  145;  on  the  body  for  action, 
150  ff. 

Hamilton,  referred  to,  19. 

Happiness,  bodily  conditions  of,  48  ff; 
psychical  conditions  of,  no  ff;  in  exer- 
cise of  will,  17S  ff ;  in  endurance  of  hard- 
ship, Walter  Wellman  on,  178;  Wundt 
and  Lotze  on,  178,  179,  180;  self-control 


INDEX 


265 


fundamental  to,  182  ff;  Hawthorne  on, 
185  ;  objectivity,  prime  condition  of,  IQ2; 
love,  greatest  source  of,  196 ;  worlc  a 
chief  means  to,  198  ff;  not  to  be  com- 
pelled, 243;  personal  association  a  means 
to,  246  ff. 

Harnack,  on  true  Christianity  and  asceti- 
cism, 97;   on  biography,  226. 

Harris,  Dr.,  referred  to,  171  ll. 

Haste,  hurtful  to  brain  power,  81  ff. 

Hawthorne,  on  self-control  and  happiness, 
185. 

Health,  in  determining  will,  80. 

Hesel,  refeired  to,  216,  221,  22j;  idea  of 
organism  in,  216  ff. 

Helps,  intellectual,  113. 

Henle,  experiments  of,  in  psychology,  56  ff; 
on  effect  of  joyful  emotions,  155. 

Herrick,  Robert,  The  Common  Lot,  205  ff. 

Herrmann,  on  duty,  184. 

"Heterogony  of  ends"  (Wundt),  156. 

Hilty,  quoted,  201;  on  man  created  for 
activity,  202  ff. 

Hindrances,  intellectual,  124  ff. 

Hobbes,  referred  to,  14. 

Hoffding,  on  unchanged  mental  state,  14; 
on  physical  and  psychical,  54;  on  phe- 
nomena of  inhibition,  68;  on  power  of 
self-control  in  insane,  79  ff;  on  mental 
hygiene,  no;  quotes  Ideler,  141;  on 
reason  and  emotion,  144;  on  action  and 
will,  145;  on  volitional  activity  and  con- 
sciousness, 147;  on  development  of  will 
and  thought,  i?8;  on  self-control  as  posi- 
tive virtue,  188  ff;  on  interaction  of  whole 
man,  200;  on  psychical  individuality,  226. 

Hoffman,  on  interest  and  attention,  159. 

Hospitality,  a  fundamental  psychological 
motive,  2?i  tf. 

Howells,  referred  to,  126,  222. 

Hume,  referred  to,  108. 

Hypnotism,  evidence  for  nnity  of  mind  and 
body,  6?,  136. 

"Idealism  of  work,"  a  theory  of  growth  in 

character,  19;. 
Ideler,  Hoffding  quotes,  141. 
"Ideo-motor    action,"    the    normal     type, 

James  on,  153. 


Idiots,  effect  of  physical  training  on,  57. 

Imagination,  proper  training  of,  24;  a  clear 
and  definite,  direct  help  to  sane  living, 
120  ff;  trained  best  in  connection  with 
conduct,  155. 

Imitation,  influence  of,  148,  246  ff;  Sully 
and  James  on,  247. 

Individualism,  revolt  against,  loS. 

Individuality,  psychical,  Hoffding  on,  226; 
of  persons  to  be  respected,  236  ff;  of 
races,  242  ff ;  respect  for,  test  of  civiliza- 
tion, 24;  ff. 

Infancy,  witness  of,  that  man  is  made  for 
personal  relations,  230  ff. 

Inferences,  four  great,  from  modern  psy- 
chology, I,  3,4: 

first,  complexity  of  life,  5  ff;  second, 
the  unity  of  man,  47  ff;  third,  the  cen- 
tral importance  of  will  and  action,  14S 
ff;  fourth,  the  concreteness  of  the  real, 
210  ff. 

Influence,  dependent  en  wide  range  of 
interests,  11;  breadth  and  depth  of,  de- 
pendent on  sympathy  with  race-interests, 
II,  12;  conditions  of,  must  be  fulfilled  to 
gain  power,  17;  paradox  in,  30;  of  body 
on  mind,  64  ff;  of  mind  on  body,  78  ff; 
psychical  conditions  of,  implied  in  unity 
of  mind,  103  ff;  bearing  of  will  on,  177  ff; 
self-control  fundamental  to,  iS;  ff;  ob- 
jectivity, prime  condition  of,  192,  197; 
work,  a  chief  means  to,  igS  ff;  of  a  per- 
son, 214;  stronger  than  command,  237  ff; 
personal  association,  a  means  to,  246  ff; 
to  be  strong  involves  being  at  one's  best, 
255. 

Inheritance,  the  best  things  not  a  magical, 
44  ff. 

Inhibition,  dependent  on  fullness  of  life,  68; 
Hoffding  on  phenomenon  of,  68;  Dr. 
Clouston  on,  70;  Dr.  J.  M.  Granville  on, 
70;  Dr.  VV.  H.  Burnham  on,  70;  rule  of, 
188. 

Initiative,  33  ff;  of  the  mind  in  habit, 
61,  91. 

Insanity,  many  forms  of,  not  due  to  organic 
lesions,  65;  Corning,  Mosso,  and  La- 
Grange  on,  due  to  lack  of  self-control,  69; 
hence  to  loss  of  power  of  attention,  161. 


266 


INDEX 


Intellect,  fundamental  function  of,  the  dis- 
cernment of  relationships,  105  ff;  dis- 
cerns temperament,  115  ff;  discerns  what 
moral  progress  is,  118;  need  to  keep 
clear  and  strong,  120  d. 

Intellectual  hindrances,  124  <?• 

Intellectual  life,  paradoxes  in,  24.  ff;  Sully 
and  Aristotle  on  habits  in,  24;  discrimi- 
nation and  assimilation,  24;  the  constant 
struggle  between  "genius  and  old-fogy- 
ism,"  25. 

Intellectual  vagueness,  immoral,  121;  Lotze 
on,  122  fJ;  the  chief  danger  in  many 
forms  of  temptation,  130. 

Interdependence  of  things,  42  ff;  of  mind 
and  body,  47  ff;  of  intellectual  functions, 
10}  ff;  of  intellect,  feeling,  and  will,  106 
ff ;  Royce  on,  107,  210  ff. 

Interests,  wide  range  of,  needed,  9,  114; 
reason  for,  q  ff ;  experience  dependent  on, 
10;  influence  dependent  on,  II ;  freedom 
dependent  on,  12;  sanity  dependent  on, 
12;  chief  test  of  one's  education,  i;; 
permanent.  Sully  on  need  of  arousing,  13 ', 
Volkmann  on,  ij;  Royce  on,  13;  human 
nature  avenges  lack  of  regard  for,  15  ff ; 
illustrations  of  need  of,  16;  religious  life 
dependent  on,  17  ff;  absorption  in  the 
lower,  defeats  itself,  20;  bodily,  and  the 
demands  of  duty,  94  ff;  chief  aim  of  edu- 
cation to  enlarge  circle  of,  114;  practical 
influence  of,  in  consciousness,  161  ff; 
James  on,  162;  determines  our  modes  of 
conceiving  and  naming  things,  162; 
influence  of,  in  reasoning,  i6j;  in  philo- 
sophical solutions,  165. 

InfospectioD,  to  be  guarded,  iq6. 

J«mes,  on  "reinstatement  of  the  vague,"  6, 
211;  on  the  dependence  of  experience  on 
interest,  10;  on  "genius  and  old-fogy- 
ism,"  25;  on  choice  of  lifework  and 
character,  32;  on  independent  reality  of 
spiritual  life,  50;  statement  of  Bain's  law 
of  diffusion,  55  ;  on  muscular  activity  and 
will,  60;  on  time-limit  of  habits,  62; 
referred  to,  77,  80,  108,  160,  225,  242;  on 
the  significance  of  habit  for  the  mental 
life,  86  ff;  maxims  on  habit,  90  ff ;  theory 


of  emotions,  137;  on  reason  and  emotion 
143;  on  neural  organism  a  machine  for 
action,  150:  on  cognition,  153;  on  atten- 
tion, 161;  on  influence  of  practical  inter- 
ests, 162;  on  powers  of  man,  168  ff;  em- 
phasis, on  "selective"  attention,  171 ;  on 
place  of  will  and  action  in  life,  176;  on 
war  between  abstract  and  concrete,  212; 
on  tweedle-dum  and  tweedle-dce,  213; 
"pragmatism,"  219;  on  imitation,  247; 
on  convictions  from  association  with 
others,  250. 

Jastrow,  Professor,  on  bodily  conditions  as  a 
means  of  accomplishing  our  ends,  78;  on 
reason  and  emotion,  143. 

Job,  referred  to.  169. 

Jordan,  President,  on  revivals,  181. 

Kant,  referred  to,  160,  216,  239,  251;  Piat- 

sen  on,  167. 
Keats,  on  axioms,  138;  referred  to,  IJ5. 
Kedney,  referred  to,  156. 
Kekule,  referred  to,  214. 
King,  H.  C,  on  self-assertion  in  character, 

35  ;  on  bearing  of  emotion  on  volition,  137? 

referred  to,  143,  255,  236,  242,  249,  250. 
King,  Irving,  referred  to,  219. 
Kingsley,  referred  to.  81. 
Kipling,  referred  to,  205. 
Knowledge,    of   self,    prime    condition    of 

growth,  114. 
Kiilpe,  on  experimental  psychology,  2;  re- 

ferred  to,  6. 

Laboratory,  first  psychological,  I. 

Laboratory  method  justified,  156. 

LaGrange,  emphasis  on  quality  of  blood, 
65;  quoted  on  the  gain  of  exercise,  66; 
on  the  need  of  wisdom  in  exercise,  67; 
on  Sydenham,  76. 

Lamb,  Charles,  Birrell  on,  233  ff. 

Law,  prevails  in  physical,  moral,  and  spirit- 
ual spheres,  41;  Drummond's  contribu- 
tion concerning,  41;  results  conditioned 
on  fulfilment  of,  41. 

Law  of  Diffusion,  point  of  connection  be- 
tween psychical  and  physical,  55;  James' 
statement  of  Bain's,  JS;  facts  of,  prove 
need  of  good  blood,  65, 


INDEX 


267 


Lecky,  on  paradox  in  character,  3;  S;  on 
paradox  in  eeneral  conduct  of  life,  17; 
The  Map  of  Life,  39  f?;  referred  to,  79, 
100;  on  need  of  action  in  adolescence, 
151;  on  education  of  the  will,  177;  on 
interest  in  others,  196. 

Leisure,  fruitful,  the  result  of  earnest  work, 
and  important,  208. 

Life,  complexity  of,  3,  s  fl: 

greater  richness  thereby,  5;  psycho- 
loeical  grounds  for  recognition  of, 
7ff. 
measured  by  range  of  interests,  9  ff ;  para- 
doxes of,  22  fJ;  conditions  of,  39  ff; 
bodily,  48  ff;  Professor  James  on,  86; 
enormous  place  of  will  and  action  in, 
176  fl. 

Life,  religious,  and  asceticism,  93  fJ. 

Life,  spiritual,  requires  fight  against  love  of 
ease,  loi;  has  intellectual,  emotional, 
and  volitional  conditions,  iiz;  means 
more  than  right  convictions,  129. 

Life-work  and  character,  paradox  in  choice 
of,  31;  James  on,  32. 

Literature  and  art,  present  themes  con- 
cretely, 214  ff;   development  of,  222  fl. 

Living,  sane,  intellectual  conditions  of, 
113  S;  emotional  conditions  of,  135  fJ; 
secret  of  staying  in  presence  of  the  best, 
192,  198;  three  great  conditions  of,  256; 
three  great  means  of,  256. 

Lotze,  on  need  of  relating  and  comparing, 
15;  thesis,  to  show  significance  of  mecha- 
nism, 23;  on  significance  of  work  and 
duties,  43;  referred  to,  107;  on  mind's 
"vision  of  unity,"  108  ff;  on  intellectual 
vagueness,  122  S\  on  danger  in  study  of 
philosophy,  125  ;  on  danger  in  vagueness, 
131  fl;  on  rank  of  human  body,  152;  on 
the  practical,  in  convictions,  166;  on 
contribution  of  effort  to  happiness,  179; 
on  theory  of  self-development,  195;  on 
concreteness  of  the  whole  man,  227;  on 
relations,  229. 

Love,  the  all-inclusive  virtue,  196;  Christ's 
teaching  summed  up  in  self-sacrificing, 
258. 

Lowell,  quoted,  43;  referred  to,  132. 

Luther,  referred  to,  II2, 


Man,  a  unity: 

the  subject  of  modern  psychology,  8; 
as  sum  of  all,  8;  brought  out  by  physi- 
ological psychology,  47  fl; 
distinctive  mark  of,  power  of  "prevision," 
180;  characterized  by  power  of  self- 
control,  iSo;  created  for  activity,  20Z  ff ; 
whole  revealed  only  in  personal  relations, 
233  ff. 

Mansell,  referred  to,  19. 

Martineau,  referred  to,  177. 

Materialism,  not  the  end  of  modern  science, 
49,  51 ;   Paulsen  referred  to,  51. 

Matheson,  Dr.,  on  obedience  of  the  child, 
238. 

Maurice,  referred  to,  234. 

Maxims,  James',  on  habit,  90  ff. 

Mechanism,  necessary  but  not  the  end,  zz; 
means  and  ends  must  be  harmonized,  Z3; 
Lotze,  on  position  of,  23. 

Memories,  kind  of,  important,  117;  clear 
and  definite,  a  most  direct  intellectual 
help  to  right  living,  120. 

Mill,  John  Stuart,  referred  to,  194. 

Mind,  influenced  by  body,  64;  search  of, 
for  unity,  loS  ff;  organized  for  action, 
153  ff ;  made  for  relations,  213  ff. 

Modern  philosophy,  its  subject  man,  8; 
reflects  the  Reformation,  8;  a  protest 
against  denial  of  complexity  of  life, 
9- 

Moods,  influence  of,  on  willing,  140. 

Mosso,  experiments  in  psychology,  56;  on 
phenomena  of  fatigue,  65,  66,  72  ff;  on 
need  of  nerve  power  in  attention,  67;  Dr. 
Chamberlain  on,  referred  to,  67;  on 
attention,  69. 

Miillcr,  Max,  referred  to,  250. 

Munger,  Dr.,  referred  to,  7;. 

Miinsterberg,  referred  to,  160,  211;  on  life 
in  terms  of  the  will,  172  ff,  177;  protest 
for  whole  man,  221  ff;  on  science  and 
psychology,  225;  on  character  by  associ- 
ation, 253. 

Mysticism,  ignoring  of  the  particular, 
a    great  error    of,    4;:     real    truth    in. 

Mystics  of  the  seventeenth  century  referred 
to,  18. 


268 


INDEX 


Natural  science,  lessons  of,  40  ff;  as  to 
need  of  undcrstandine  conditions,  41  fl; 
as  to  connection  of  spiritual  life  with 
bodily  conditions,  48  ff;  metliods  of,  and 
of  history,  approaching  each  other,  224, 
226. 

Naturalism,  inconsistent,  sj. 

Nervous  enerey,  a  necessity  in  attention, 
67;  Cornine's  rules  for  meeting  special 
conditions  of,  82 ;  necessity  of  proper  con- 
trol of  emotions,  81  ff;  development  of,  in 
educntion,  89. 

Nervous  system  in  forming  habits,  61. 

Neural  organism,  a  machine  for  action,  ijo. 

Neurasthenia,  an  American  disease,  76. 

Neitsche,  referred  to,  38. 

Oberlin,  referred  to,  16. 

Objectivity,  a  prime  condition  of  character, 

happiness,  and  influence,  192  S. 
"Old-fogyism,"  25. 
Organism,  influence  of  idea  of,  in  history  of 

thought,  21S  B;    before   Hegel,  216;  in 

Hegel,  2i6ff;  since  Hegel,  2i8ff;  analogy 

of,  inadequate,  223  fl. 
Over-activity  of  Americans,  209. 

Palmer,  Professor,  on  decision,  27  (f. 

Paradoxes  of  life,  22  ff ;  of  ends  and  means, 
22;  of  different  spheres  of  life,  25  If; 
physical,  2?;  intellectual,  24  ff;  Sully  on, 
26;  moral,  26  ff ; 

decision,  26;  enthusiasm  and  quietism, 
28; 
of  true  simplicity,  29;  of  emotion,  ?o:  in 
influence,  30;  in  religion,  31;  Erdmann 
on,  31 ;  in  choice  of  life-work  and  charac- 
ter, 31  S;  James  on,  32;  fundamental, 
involved  in  very  natures,  33;  docility  and 
initiative,  Royce  on,  33  fl*;  King  on,  35; 
Lecky  on,  35;  in  general  conduct  of  life, 
36ff;  Lecky  on,  37;  Ritschl  on, 37;  Everett 
against  Neitsche,  on,  38;  Biedermann  on, 
38 ;  psychology's  emphasis  on,  means  em- 
phasis on  conditions,  38. 

Pascal,  referred  to,  165. 

Pathological  psychology,  7. 

Paul,  on  true  asceticism,  99  ff;  referred  to, 
112;  referred  to  and  quoted  by  Professor 


James,  189  ff;  comparison  of  Church  tc 

body, 216;  on  training  of  children,  242 
Paulsen,  referred  to,  ji,  129,  146,  147,  17 

24S;  on  danger  in  vagueness  of  though 

132;  on  the  practical  in  conviction,  161 

on  Kant,  167, 
Peary,  on  value  of  education  for  enduranc 

12. 
Person,  recognition   of  sacredness  of,   23 

ff;    this  the  highest   test  of  civilizatioi 

245  ff. 
Personality,  of  others,  respect  for,  236  fl 

respect  for,  highest  test  of  civilization 

245  ff. 
Persona'  relations,  more  than  organic.  224 

psychological  emphasis  on,  228;  bodie 
made  for,  230;  witness  of  infancy  tha 
man  is  made  for,  230;  witness  of  mora 
history  of  the  race  to  need  of,  231  ff ;  w' 
ness  of  philosophy  to  need  of,  232;  wh 
man    revealed    only   in,   233;     power 

246  ff;  men  made  for,  248;    the  gre: 
means  to  character,  249  ff. 

Persons,  psychological  emphasis  on,  22!. 
interest   of    infancy    and     childhood 
230   ff;      respect   for    moral    freedom   o. 
236  ff. 
Philosophy,  only  solution   of   problems  of, 
practical,   165;    witness  of,   to   need   of 
personal  relations,  232  ff. 
Physical,  paradoxes  in  realm  of,  23;  close 
connection  of,  with  spiritual.  48  ff;   this 
proved  by  law  of  diffusion;  James'  state- 
ment of  this  law,  55. 

Physical  training,  effects  of,  on  mind,  57; 
need  of,  for  higher  life,  77;  Sully  quoted 
01,77;  James  referred  to,  on.  77;  exer- 
cise and  will,  58;  Sully  on,  58  ff;  G. 
Stanley  Hall  on,  59;  Dr.  Maclaren's  in- 
quiries on,  59. 

Physiological  psychology,  defined,  7;  mis- 
sion to  show  unity  of  man,  47  ff;  on  the 
phenomena  of  fatigue,  69. 

Pfleiderer,  on  asceticism,  98. 

Plato,  referred  to,  144. 

P/ui-health,  need  of,  75. 

Pope,  referred  to,  216. 

Practical,  the,  in  consciousness,  162  ff;  in 
conception    and    reasoning,     162    ff;    in 


INDEX 


269 


philosophical  solutions,  163  ff ;  in  convic- 
tions,   166    fl;     Job's    problem    also    in 
Ecclesiastes,    169    ff;    among    Christian 
university  students  in  Berlin,  170. 
Pragmatism,  219  fl. 

Prevision,  distinctive  mark  of  man,  180. 
^Problems,  theoretical  solution  of,  impossi- 
ble,   168    ff;     see    Job    and     Ecclesiastes, 
I     169  f};   of  university  students  in   Berlin, 

170. 
|Protest,  in  interest  of  whole  man  continually 
I     needed,  220  flf;   in  history  of    literature, 
I    221  f?;  in  philosophy,  223  fl;   in  history, 

224  ff;   in  education,  227  ff. 
iPsychology,  emphasis  of  modern,  upon  ex- 
\    perimental  side,  2;   meaning  of  the  move- 
ment, 2  ff;  Royceon,and  Kuipe,2;  four 
I     great  inferences  from,  3. 
I    First  emphasis  upon   complexity  of  life, 
5  ff:  physiological,  defined,  7;  race,  7; 
pathological,  7;  comparative,  8;  exper- 
imental method  in,  8:   declares  need  of 
wide  range  of   interests,  Q  ff;    empha- 
sizes the  relatedness  of  all,  14  ff;   sees 
i         the  paradoxes  of  life,  22  ff;  emphasizes 
I        the  conditions  of  life,  39  ff. 
j    Second  emphasis  upon  unity  of  man,  47  ff; 
I        evidence  for  unity  of  mind  and  body, 
I        55  ff;  unity  of  the  mind,  103  ff ;   affirms 
one  fundamental  function  of  mind,  ic;  ; 
interdependence  also  of  intellect,  feel- 
ing, and  will,  106  ff. 
Third  emphasis  upon  central  importance 
of  will  and  action,  145  ff; 
current  emphasis  of,  171  ff. 
Fourth  great  emphasis  on,  the  concrete- 

ness  of  the  real,  zio  ff. 
uritanism,  the  new,  93. 
urpose,  right,  broad  application  of,  118; 
deep    application    of,    119;    skilful    and 
delicate  application  of,  120;  born  of  con- 
viction, 138. 

i^uo  Vadis  (Chilo),  referred  to,  123. 

I 

;t.ace  psychology,  defined,  7. 
'Raphael's  Sistine  Madonna,  193. 
{.ational  living,  bodily  conditions  of,  48  ff : 
based  on  zood  blood,  6f;  Dr.  Trumbull 


on,  80;  the  law  of  habit  in,  87;  intellec- 
tual conditions  of,  iioff;  volitional  con- 
ditions of,  144  ff;  three  great  conditions 
of,  256;  three  great  means  of,  256. 

Real,  the,  is  concrete,  3,  210  ff;  cannot  be 
abstractly  defined,  21 1  ff,  220. 

Realism,  referred  to,  222,  235. 

"Realism  of  self-development,"  a  theory  of 
growth  in  character,  194. 

Reality,  emotion  adds  greatly  to  sense  of, 
135  ff;   only  standard  of,  within  us,  165. 

Reason. need  to  exercise  in  case  of  exciting 
emotion,  143;  James  on,  143;  Hoffding 
on,  144. 

Reformation,  the,  reffected  in  modern  phi- 
losophy, 8. 

Reformatory,  New  York  State,  experiments 
in,  58. 

Relatedness  of  all,  14  ff;  recognition  of, 
required  to  give  value  to  interest,  65; 
recognition  of,  carries  denial  of  possible 
separation  of  sacred  and  secular,  17,  4Z 
ff;   not  opposed  to  personality,  229, 

Relating,  need  of,  for  complete  knowledge, 
15- 

Relations,  multiplicity  and  intricacy  of, 
5ff. 

Relativity  of  human  knowledge,  19. 

Religion,  paradoxes  in,  and  Erdmann  on, 
31;  Bicdermann  on,  38;  not  a  magical 
inheritance,  44;   is  life,  186. 

Religious  life,  and  asceticism,  93  ff;  self- 
control  a  necessity,  180  ff ;  Coe  on  modern 
conception  of,  235. 

Religious  movements  of  our  time,  ig. 

Respect  for  liberty  and  personality  of 
others,  236  ff. 

Results,  conditioned  on  fulfilment  of  law, 
41. 

Revivals,  President  Jordan  on,  i8i;  involve 
reason  and  self-control,  181. 

Reymond,  Du  Bois,  on  psychology  of  physi- 
cal exercises,  57. 

Richardson,  referred  to,  83. 

RitschI,  on  significance  of  friendship,  37; 
on  manufactured  emotions,  139  ff. 

Romanes,  on  value  of  emotions,  136  ff. 

Romanticism,  referred  to,  222. 

Romanticists,  referred  to,  185. 


270 


INDEX 


Royce.  on  the  scope  of  psychology,  i;  on 
need  of  arousing  permanent  interests,  13 
B\    classification   of   mental    phenomena, 

33  5;  on  self-assertion  and  self-surrender, 

34  fi;  on  tendency  to  fixed  habit  of  mind, 
45  ff;  on  time-limit  in  habits,  62;  re- 
ferred to,  7z,  171,246;  on  interdepend- 
ence of  mental  powers,  104  ff ;  on  unity  of 
intellectual  and  voluntary  powers,  107;  on 
philosophy,  125;  on  impulse  to  imitative 
action,  14S  ff;  on  trainingof  imagination, 
155;  rule  of  inhibition,  188  fi;  on  think- 
ing as  a  kind  of  living,  217;  on  human 
instinct  for  association,  230  ff. 

Ruskin,  quoted  by  Miss  Call,  82. 

Sacred  and  secular,  denial  of  separation 
of,  17. 

Sanity,  dependent  on  wide  range  of  inter- 
ests, 12. 

Schelling,  referred  to,  216. 

Schlegel,  and  the  Romanticists,  185. 

Sciences,  empirical,  214  ff. 

Schleiermacher,  referred  to,  216. 

Schopenhauer,  referred  to,  147,  193. 

Seeley,  referred  to,  158;  Ecct  Homo,  con- 
tagion of  character,  252. 

Self,  knowledge  of,  a  prime  condition  of 
growth,  114  ff;  consciousness  possible 
only  through  volition,  147;  imitative  ac- 
tivity the  bridge  between  earlier  and 
later  stages  of,  148;  the  social,  2z8  S. 

Self-control,  effect  of  fatigue  on,  67  ff;  a 
basis  of  character,  68  ff,  74;  power  of, 
dependent  on  attention,  69,  74;  made 
easier  by  right  bodily  conditions,  79; 
power  of,  in  insane,  Hoffding  on,  79;  as 
to  emotions,  82  ff;  Richardson  on,  83; 
volitional,  83;  Dr.  George  E.  Gorham  on 
control  of  emotions,  83  ff,  187  ff;  bodily 
functions  affected  by,  85;  positive  charac- 
ter of,  85,  96,  183  ff,  187  ff;  looks  to 
growth,  95  ff;  Paul  on  the  need  of,  99  ff; 
attention  at  basis  of,  161;  fundamental 
character  of,  180  ff: 

to  moral  and  religious  character,  180; 
to  happiness,  182:   to  influence,  18$. 

Self-denial,  combined  with  self-assertion, 
32;  Royce  on,  34;  King  on,  35  ;  Lecky  on. 


35;  value  of,  in  formation  of  charae,:er, 
Q2,  93;  in  unnecessary  things,  97  ff;  the 
true  value  of,  98. 

Self-development,  theory  of,  fundamentally 
deficient,  195  ff. 

Sequin,  Dr.,  in  training  of  idiots,  57. 

Shaftsbury,  idea  of  organism,  216. 

Shah  of  Persia,  interest  in  Derby,  referred 
to,  212  ff. 

Sheppard,  Nathan,  referred  to,  92. 

Sill,  E.  R.,  quoted,  4;. 

Simplicity,  true,  demands  of,  29. 

Smiles,  referred  to,  160. 

Socrates,  referred  to,  112, 

Spencer,  Herbert,  referred  to,  75. 

Spinoza,  referred  to,  189. 

Spiritual  life,  close  connection  of,  with 
physical,  48  ff;  not  materialistic,  49  ff; 
James  on  independence  of,  50,  52  ff ;  and 
the  "passion  for  material  comrort,"  lot; 
may  not  ignore  power  of  emotions,  138. 

Spheres  of  life,  paradoxes  in  different,  23  ff. 

St.  John,  referred  to,  20. 

St.  Teresa,  -referred  to  through  Granger, 
139. 

Starr,  quoted,  6;;  on  lack  of  self-control, 
69;  on  imperfect  educational  methods, 
103  ff. 

Stephen,  Leslie,  referred  to,  222. 

Stephenson,  referred  to,  126,  205. 

Study,  proper  kind  of,  134  ff- 

Sully,  on  need  of  arousing  permanent  inter- 
ests, 13;  on  best  mental  habits,  24;  on 
decision,  27;  on  nervous  and  mental  pro- 
cesses, 54;  on  connection  of  will  and 
muscular  activity,  58  ff;  on  need  of  physi- 
cal training,  77;  on  unity  of  mind,  104; 
on  discipline,  257;  on  imitation,  247. 

Sydenham,  mentioned,  76. 

Symbolism,  referred  to,  222. 

Temperament,  knowledge  of,  essential,  US 
ff;  as  to  powers,  116  ff;  as  to  memories, 
117. 

Temptation,  a  chief  danger  in,  from  intel- 
lectual vagueness,  130  ff ;  Lotze  on  130. 

Thinking,  relation  of,  to  right  livine, 
113. 

Tolstoi,  referred  to,  126,  Zoj. 


INDEX 


271 


Training,  all  real,  of  whole  man,  body, 
mind,  and  spirit,  61;  of  the  will,  in 
physical  culture,  95. 

Trumbull,  Dr.,  referred  to,  80. 

Unity  of  man,  3. 

Unity  of  body  and  mind,  47  ff;  recognized 
in  asceticism,  47  ff;  psychological  evi- 
dence for,  55  ff;  suggestions  for  living 
from,  64  S. 

Unity  of  mind,  10?  ff ;  intellectual  functions 
interdependent,  103  ff;  intellect,  feeling, 
and  will  also  interdependent,  106  ff; 
shown  by  search  of  mind  for  unity,  108; 
suggestions  for  living  from,  iii  ff;  im- 
plies certain  conditions,  liz  ff: 

intellectual,   li?  ff:  emotional,   IJ5   ff; 
volitional,  144  ff. 

Vague,  the,  James  on  reinstatement  of,  6. 
Vagueness,      intellectual,      immoral,     ill; 

gives  chief  danger  to  temptation,  ijo  ff. 
Volition,  bearing  of  emotion  on,  137  ff;   of 

moods  on,  Hf^  ff. 
Volitional  self-tontrol,  83. 
Volkmann.on  need  of  arousing  permanent 

interests,  13. 

Wagner,  "Venus  music,"  referred  to,  131. 

Wagner,  Charles,  quoted  on  negations,  117. 

Wakefulness,  degrees  of,  14. 

Ward,  quoted,  53. 

Ward,  Mrs.,  referred  to,  16. 

Weariness,  a  warning  against  over-activity, 
71. 

Wellman,  Walter,  on  pleasure  in  endur- 
ance, 178  ff. 

Westcott,  Bishop,  on  asceticism,  loi. 

Wiggin,  Mrs.,  quoted,  194. 

Will,  and  action,  of  central  importance,  3, 


145  ff;  muscular  activity  and,  58  ff;  Stan- 
ley Hall  on,  59;  in  determining  condi- 
tions of  health,  80;  in  achieving  rest,  80; 
volitional  self-control,  83;  training  of,  in 
education,  88  ff;  power  of  attention  the 
center  of,  90;  influence  of  moods  on,  140 
ff;  development  of,  affects  thought,  158; 
inattention,  159  ff;  freedom  of,  in  atten- 
tion, 160;  enormous  place  of,  in  life,  176 
ff;  effort  of,  contributes  to  happiness, 
178  ff. 

Will-training,  Stanley  Hall  on,  95;  ample 
field  for,  in  requirements  of  health,  100 
ff ;  most  vital  of  all  problems,  177. 

Windelband,  on  the  empirical  sciences, 
224  ff,  226. 

Work,  significance  of,  42;  small  matters 
may  not  be  slighted,  42;  Lotze  on,  43; 
Lowell  on,  43;  Gannett  on,  43;  Bishop 
of  Exeter  on,  43;  effect  of  mental,  upon 
nerve  cells,  71;  upon  things,  as  protec- 
tion against  sophistry,  126;  chief  means 
to  character,  happiness,  and  influence, 
198  ff;  real,  requires  purpose,  201;  one 
of  the  profoundest  needs  of  man's  nature, 
203 ;  means  simply  the  common  task, 
204  ff ;  fruits  in  right  leisure,  208  ff. 

Wundt,  Outlines  of  Physiological  Psychology, 
referred  to,  i,  16S;  "  hcterogony  of  ends," 
156  ff;  on  civilization,  159;  on  the  prac- 
tical in  convictions,  166  ff;  on  play,  178; 
on  contribution  of  will  and  action  to 
happiness,  179;  on  rules  of  good  man- 
ners, 199;  on  conception  of  work,  203  ff; 
on  poetic  quality  of  modern  life,  205;  on 
reality,  212;  on  humoristic  spirit,  231  ff. 

Yonge,  Miss,  quoted,  241. 

Zeller,  referred  to,  89,  l8z. 


Theology  and  the   Social 
Consciousness 

A  Study  of  the  Relatiom  of  the  Social  Consciousness  to   Theology 

By   HENRY   CHURCHILL   KING 

President  of  Oberlin  College 
Author  of  "  Recoastruction  in  Theology,"  etc. 

CLOTH.      l2mo.      SI.25,  net 

"The  strength  of  Professor  King's  eminently  sane  and  helpful  book  is  not  in  brilliant 
and  9U££estive  sentences,  but  in  its  clear  unfolding  of  an  elemental  truth,  and  fearless  and 
vigorous  application  of  that  truth  to  religioua  thinking.  One  cannot  read  it  carefully  with- 
out realizing  that  his  thinking  has  been  cleared  of  much  mistiness,  and  that  he  has  a 
deepened  conception  of  a  truth  of  superlative  importance,  to  which  he  has  but  to  be  stead- 
ily loyal  to  find  a  rational  interpretation  of  his  spiritual  experience,  and  a  safe  guide  amid 
the  mazes  of  theological  speculation." — The  Concregationalitt. 


Reconstruction  in  Theology 

By  HENRY  CHURCHILL   KING 

President  of  Oberlin  College 
CLOTH.      l2mo.      Sl.60. 

FROM  THE  AUTHOR'S  PREFACE 

^'A  new  conttructive  period  in  theology,  it  may  well  be  believed,  is  at  band.  This 
book  has  been  written  with  the  earnest  desire  and  hope  that  it  may  contribute  something 
toward  the  forwarding  of  a  movement  already  going  on— a  really  spiritual  reconstruction  of 
theology  in  terms  that  should  bring  it  home  to  our  own  day.  The  book  aims,  first,  to  show 
that  such  a  reconstruction  is  needed  and  demanded,  because  of  the  changed  intellectual, 
moral,  and  spiritual  world  in  which  we  live;  and  then  to  characterize  briefly,  but  suffi- 
ciently, this  new  world  of  our  day;  and  finally,  to  indicate  the  influence  which  these  con- 
victions of  our  time  ought  to  have  upon  theological  conception  and  statement,  especially  in 
bringing  us  to  a  restatement  of  theology  in  terms  of  personal  relation.  It  has  been  a  con- 
stant desire  of  the  writer  to  help  intelligent  laymen,  as  well  as  theological  students  and 
ministers,  to  a  more  thorough  and  sympathetic  understanding  of  the  great  convictions 
and  scholarly  movements  of  the  day," 


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The  Practice  of  Self -Culture 

By   HUGH   BLACK 
Author  of  "  Culture  and  Restraint,"  "  Friendship,"  etc. 

CLOTH.       fZmo.      SI. 28,  net 

"Mr.  Hugh  Black,  who  is  the  associate  of  Dr. 
Whyte  at  Free  St.  George's,  Edinburgh,  is  probably 
the  most  popular  preacher  in  Scotland,  and  is  a  man 
of  great  spiritual  earnestness,  simplicity  of  nature, 
and  very  fine  intellectual  quality." — The  Outlook. 


Representative  Modern  Preachers 

By   LEWIS  O.    BRASTOW,    D.D. 

Professor  of  Practical  Theology,  Yale  University 
CLOTH.       l2mo.      $1.60,  net 

Careful,  critical  estimates  of  preachers  who  have 
prominently  represented  different  schools  of 
preaching  during  the  last  century;  whose  skill  and 
force  in  presenting  the  truth  have  won  the  right  to 
a  special  hearing. 


THE  MACMILLAN   COMPANY 

64-66  FIFTH   AVENUE  NEW  YORK 


Personal  and  Ideal  Elements 
in  Education 

By   HENRY   CHURCHILL   KING 

President  of  Oberlin  College 
CLOTH.       l2mo.      Sl.60,  net 

Dr.  King's  addresses  and  papers  for  various  occasions  deal  witn 

the  problem  of  the  College  in  distinction  from  the  University;  with 
the  relation  of  Religion  to  Education,  Ethics,  and  Life;  with  the 
conditions  imposed  on  Religious  Education  by  Psychology  and 
Pedagogy;  with  the  Educational  and  Evangelistic  methods  of  Chris- 
tian training  as  compared,  and  with  the  ethical,  psychological  and 
physical  conditions  of  character  building.  The  central  idea  running 
through  the  whole  is  the  superiority  of  personality  to  mechanism,  the 
sacredness  of  personality,  and  the  means  of  its  best  development. 


From  Epicurus  to  Christ 

A    Study   in   the  Principles  of   Personality 
By  WILLIAM   DE  WITT   HYDE 

President  of  Bowdoin  College 
CLOTH.       l2mo.      SI.50,  net 

'^Four  schools  of  thought  in  classic  Greece  emphasized  each  a 
feature  of  personality.  Christianity  takes  up  into  itself  all  that  was 
sound  in  each,  and  incorporates  it,  cleared  of  excess  or  perversion, 
into  the  complete  conception.  This,  in  brief,  is  what  Dr.  Hyde  tells 
us.  But  let  no  one  imagine  that  a  book  thus  concisely  described  is 
for  students  of  grizzled  antiquity.  On  the  contrary,  it  is  intensely, 
incisely  modern.  It  is  the  modern  representatives  of  Epicurus,  Plato, 
Marcus  Aurelius,  with  whom  it  is  concerned,  and  their  missing  of  the 
ideal  of  personality  that  it  describes  and  satirizes;  the  modern  evils 
resulting  in  individual,  domestic,  social,  political  life  that  it  exposes 
and  condemns.  Consequently  it  is  alive  with  present-day  interests. 
In  its  exposition  of  the  Christian  conception  of  personality  it  holds  that 
the  omission  of  any  truth  for  which  the  ancient  systems  stood  mutilates 
and  impoverishes  the  Christian  view  of  life." — The  Outlook. 


THE    MACMILLAN    COMPANY 

64-66   FIFTH    AVENUE  NEW  YORK 


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